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Exclusive: Bees may be source of pollen near remains but evidence still suggests bodies were buried with careBuried in a partial foetal position and surrounded by flower pollen, the discovery of Shanidar 4 - a Neanderthal skeleton unearthed in 1960 - prompted a dramatic reappraisal of our ancient cousins.Far from being brutish thugs, the Shanidar flower burial, as it became known, painted a picture of Neanderthals as empathic beings who cared enough for their dead to scour the mountains for funeral bouquets. Now, fresh evidence suggests this interpretation may have been incorrect - although Neanderthals may still have had strong funerary rituals. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: The country's lunar landing was a triumph. This is how it quietly built a successful mission Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning.Last week India became the fourth ever country to land a spacecraft on the moon, and the first to touch down successfully near its south pole. It was hailed as a success for budget" missions, with the project costing 60m, less than half of the 131m it cost Christopher Nolan to make his 2014 space epic, Interstellar. Continue reading...

Earlier detection means more successful treatment - but also a drain on resources for an already creaking health serviceThis month, it was reported that England's existing screening programme for bowel cancer for 60 to 74-year-olds had prevented 20,000 cases of bowel cancer over the past 10 years. This comes amid an ongoing effort in England to extend bowel cancer screening to those aged between 50 and 59. And in June, the NHS national director for cancer welcomed a new blood test currently being trialled in the UK that can detect 50 types of the disease.More cancer screening seems like unqualified good news: generally, the earlier cancer is diagnosed, the higher the chance of successful treatment. However, there are harms that come with screening, too, both for people being screened and for the NHS as a whole that should be mitigated against. I am certainly not discouraging people from taking up screening offers, but expansion of screening programmes must come with concrete plans about delivery. This requires extra NHS fundingand capacity. Continue reading...

Lunar spectacle also qualifies as a blue moon by some definitionsThe second full moon of the month occurs this week. The first took place on 1 August, but this second coming will grace the skies on 31 August.Because it is the second full supermoon in the month, it is also called a blue moon - although definitions for blue moons vary. The above definition is known as a monthly blue moon but some prefer what is known as a seasonal blue moon. This is the third full moon in a season that contains four full moons - so the blue moon may not be the second of the month. Continue reading...

Research presented to annual meeting of European Society of Cardiology prompts calls for actionUltra-processed food significantly raises the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, according to two studies that one expert says should serve as a wake-up call for governments worldwide.Global consumption of heavily processed items such as cereals, protein bars, fizzy drinks, ready meals and fast food has soared in recent years. In the UK and US, well over half the average diet now consists of ultra-processed food (UPF). For some, especially people who are younger, poorer or from disadvantaged areas, a diet comprising as much as 80% UPF is typical. Continue reading...

Unique research shows cardiovascular gains recorded in patients who were shown TV comedyThe old adage that laughter is the best medicine" may contain an element of truth when it comes to heart health.A study has demonstrated that having a chuckle causes the tissue inside the heart to expand - and increases oxygen flow around the body. Continue reading...

The success of Chandrayaan-3 goes well beyond providing images from the moon's south poleI let out an involuntary whoop when it landed," my friend Shivansh told me. He was travelling on London Underground at the time. Everyone on the tube was staring at me."Shivansh is just one of millions of Indians all over the world who are celebrating the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar exploration mission. Indians even broke YouTube's record for livestreams, with more than 8 million people staying glued to their screens last Wednesday, as the spacecraft edged close to the lunar surface. The excitement is understandable, especially considering the fact that just four years ago, the preceding Chandrayaan lander crashed into the moon after a software glitch. Continue reading...

In sniping at failures' on Covid, the former MI6 chief is reinforcing a false messageThe former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove is no stranger to the intricacies of intelligence. But it was his comments about intelligence of the artificial kind, and about science, on the One Decision Podcast, which he co-hosts, that generated a flurry of interest last week. Reacting to grave warnings from some scientists over potential dangers of AI, Dearlove professed scepticism, reasoning that such dire predictions cannot be taken overly seriously given the failures of scientists on Covid. Such comments betray a common and insidious confusion over what science is and how it should be interpreted, and risk emboldening scientific denialists.Part of the error stems from a mistaken conflation of science" and scientist". Science is not an arcane collection of dogma but an active and systematic method of inquiry. Science pivots on making testable predictions, which are updated as new findings emerge, to reflect the totality of evidence. Scientific positions are always transient, subject to revision when stronger evidence emerges. All scientific knowledge is provisional, therefore scientific advice is prone to change and can evolve at dizzying speeds during periods of intense discovery. Continue reading...

Ethical questions - not least, about risks to the donors - have been ignored in the excited coverage of this British medical breakthroughGood news stories can feel few and far between these days. The pace of progress means they are often medical; there's always new life-saving and life-changing treatments on the horizon.Perhaps that explains the breathy excitement with which the UK's first womb transplant was reported last week - transferred from an older sister who has had children to a younger sister with a rare condition that means she could not otherwise carry a pregnancy. Articles were packed with quotes from doctors heralding this as a profound development, the dawn of a new age", according to the chair of the British Fertility Society.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Fifty years after the UK sent its first satellite into space, a Scottish town is among rivals vying for another shotA large band of battered metal has been placed on a stand at the entrance of Skyrora's rocket manufacturing hall in Cumbernauld in central Scotland. Six feet in diameter, the loop is perforated, torn and twisted, a result of being blasted into space and then dropped on to the Australian outback where it has lain for almost 50 years until its recent recovery.The ring is part of the remains of Britain's only satellite launch, which took place on 28 October 1971 when a Black Arrow rocket placed a Prospero probe into orbit round the Earth. The programme was cancelled the same year. Continue reading...

My wife wanted to plan a week of dinners but I preferred to leave room for disorder. Mathematical thinking helped us combine our different approaches to lifeIn the black and white yin-yang symbol of Chinese philosophy, the yin represents disorder and the feminine, while the yang represents order and the masculine. In my married life the gender stereotype is reversed. My wife is order and I am chaos. She wants to plan what we are having for dinner every night for the coming week. I feel there isn't much point thinking about it, because what if we want to take the kids swimming one evening or meet up with friends?"Our differing approaches have led to a few animated discussions (to say the least) and it was after one of these that I started to think about chaos theory: the mathematical theory behind the parable of the butterfly and the storm that gives rise to the so-called butterfly effect - the idea that the flap of the wing of a butterfly in the Amazon can set off the atmospheric events that lead to a storm off the coast of Texas weeks later. Perhaps, I thought, I can prove that planning is pointless. That disorder is inevitable and we might as well accept our lack of control. Continue reading...

Large new study using UK Biobank data shows even a small reduction in salt intake can be beneficialCutting out salt from meals can slash your risk of heart problems and strokes by almost a fifth, the largest study of its kind suggests.Research has documented how adding salt to food increases the likelihood of cardiovascular disease and premature death. Now experts have established just how big a difference you could make to your heart health - simply by reducing the number of meals to which you add salt or by ditching it altogether. Continue reading...

SpaceX has successfully launched its Dragon spacecraft with four crew members onboard from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The international crew includes the Nasa astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, the European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and the Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov. The launch of Crew-7, as the mission is called, was originally scheduled for Thursday but was halted by Nasa and SpaceX to deal with lingering issues, according to officials. The spacecraft is due to reach the International Space Station on Sunday

The science reporter reveals the astonishing truth behind the stories in her new book, The Six, which follows the first women inducted into Nasa's astronaut programme in 1978Your parents both worked on the space shuttle programme for decades, and you have gone on to write about Sally Ride, Anna Fisher, Judy Resnik, Shannon Lucid, Rhea Seddon and Kathy Sullivan - the first six American female astronauts. Were you always interested in space?

On the ISS, astronauts from Russia and the west share a craft the size of a large family home. So what happened when Moscow started a conflict 250 miles below on Earth?One evening in January 2015, Terry Virts, a Nasa astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS), decided to pop over to the Russian quarters, catch up with his Russian colleagues and check out the view. For views, nothing beats the space station. From this orbiting perch approximately 250 miles (400km) above the Earth, scores of astronauts have waxed lyrical about the beauty of our planet: its mesmerising, fast-motion sunrises and sunsets, its brilliant colours and startling fragility.As a 47-year-old former space shuttle pilot, then on his second visit to the space station, Virts had experienced all of this himself and would do so many times again. But this night would be different. Continue reading...

The Weekend team are taking a break. So this week, we're looking back at some of our favourite pieces of the year.Elle Hunt reveals the incredible story of one man's struggle to rebuild his life after being struck by lightning (1m35s); Amelia Dimoldenberg recounts her journey from the Chicken Shop to Vanity Fair's Oscars party (16m32s); and Chloe Hamilton describes navigating the heartbreak of fertility - shoulder to shoulder with her twin sister (33m56s). Continue reading...

Stanford study shows that people with the common sleep disorder are also five times more likely to develop atrial fibrillationSnoring loudly and feeling tired even after a full night's sleep could leave people at an increased risk of a stroke, a study has shown.Hundreds of millions of people globally have sleep apnoea, a disorder with symptoms including stopping and starting breathing, making snorting noises, waking up a lot and loud snoring. Many have the condition but are undiagnosed. Continue reading...

This record of our existence is now gliding through space, way beyond our solar system - we may as well forget about it, writes Antony BarlowJoel Snape's article (Super-intelligent aliens are going to destroy humanity? Whatever, 23 August) raises the possibility of malevolent aliens.The great Carl Sagan posited that if alien life did exist and came to visit Earth, they would almost certainly be friendly, because based on our own destructive course, which is more than likely to end in our extinction, it is likely that the aliens would have survived having discovered the art of coexistence. Continue reading...

Linda Geddes' article on the body's vagus nerve reminded Prof Jack Price of a strange - but inadvisable - tactic to exploit itI very much enjoyed Linda Geddes' article on the vagus nerve (The key to depression, obesity, alcoholism - and more? Why the vagus nerve is so exciting to scientists, 23 August). It is, as she says, a nerve of marvellously diverse function, as we've known for some time. The auricular branch of the vagus, which, as Geddes notes, innervates the ear, used to be known as the alderman's nerve. Apparently, civic officials, overstuffed at state banquets yet still desiring dessert, were known to squirt cold water into an ear in the hope of stimulating gastric emptying, and making space for more.In my day, junior doctors were warned against syringing the ears of elderly patients with cold water for fear of stopping their hearts. But now a digital device attaches to your ear rather than cold water. Progress indeed.

Women were given chapatis containing radioactive isotopes as part of trial into iron deficiencyThe Coventry MP Taiwo Owatemi has called for a statutory inquiry into medical research in the 1960s on south Asian women in the city, who were given chapatis containing radioactive isotopes.A total of 21 Indian-origin women, identified through a Coventry GP, were given the bread containing Iron-59 (an iron isotope with a gamma-beta emitter) as part of a research trial in 1969 into iron deficiency in the south Asian population. Continue reading...

India released footage of its lunar rover rolling down a ramp on to the moon's surface after it made history by being the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the moon's south pole. The solar-powered rover will spend two weeks roaming the rocks and boulders and will run a series of experiments to help scientists understand the geology of the moon, find out if there are traces of water and carry out chemical analysis

Semaglutide injections trigger very large improvements' in patients with hearts too stiff to fill properlyWeight-loss jabs can reverse the symptoms of heart failure, according to a global trial that experts say could revolutionise treatment.Heart failure is one of the world's fastest growing health threats. About 65 million people have the condition, with cases soaring in recent years. However, few treatment options are available. Continue reading...

Researchers say their pyramid-shaped pear tree structures could help certain marine habitats recoverReefs made from sunken trees can help restore biodiversity in degraded marine habitats, scientists have found.It is estimated that coral reefs support about 25% of all marine life. They provide housing, food and areas to spawn for millions of marine species and are the backbone of maintaining the aquatic life cycle. Continue reading...

Delay joining the Horizon Europe programme making it more difficult to attract and retain the brightest scientistsTop young cancer researchers are leaving the UK in a brain drain" fuelled by the continuing failure to reach an agreement over the EU's study programme, scientists warn.The two-and-a-half-year delay in joining the 85bn Horizon Europe scheme, the largest collaborative research programme in the world, has damaged the UK's reputation" and made it more difficult to attract and retain the brightest researchers into the nation's labs. Continue reading...

Predictive tool significantly outperforms' others available and could help avert about 40% of casesScientists have identified 11 risk factors for dementia and used them to develop a tool that can predict whether someone will develop the condition in the next 14 years.The number of people living with dementia globally is forecast to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050, and experts have said that it presents a rapidly growing threat to future health and social care systems. But targeting key risk factors, several of which involve lifestyle, could avert about 40% of cases. Continue reading...

The party had 407,445 members at the end of 2022, down almost 25,000 compared with 2021, annual accounts show. This live blog is closedAlbania was the country providing most asylum applications in the year ending in June 2023, the Home Office figures show.As PA Media reports, there were 11,790 applications by Albanian nationals in that 12-month period, 7,557 of which came from arrivals on boats crossing the English Channel. PA says:The number of Albanian small boat arrivals peaked during the summer of 2022 and by early 2023 had dropped below levels seen in 2021.Afghans were the second most common nationality applying for asylum in the year to June 2023, with 9,964 applications, almost double the number in the previous 12 months (5,154).These new statistics set out in stark terms the complete chaos the Tories have created in the immigration and asylum system.The asylum backlog has reached a new record high, with 175,000 people now waiting for decisions. Only one per cent of last year's 45,000 small boats cases have received a decision and the number of failed asylum seekers being returned is also down a whopping 70 per cent since 2010. This is a disastrous record for the prime minister and home secretary. Continue reading...

Active community testing required on an intermittent basis to see the whole iceberg, not just the tip', Prof Catherine Bennett says

CDC said that scientists discovered a new coronavirus variant, BA 2.86, and that higher-risk individuals should be cautiousAs authorities revealed that a new Covid-19 variant has been detected in the US, medical experts are emphasizing that high-risk persons resume masking to prevent potentially deadly infection. Warnings from these physicians come amid an ongoing increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that scientists have discovered a new coronavirus variant, BA 2.86, during routine monitoring of wastewater. Officials said that this variant's large number of mutations" has prompted concerns that it could evade immunity derived from vaccination and prior infections more than other variants. Continue reading...

Solar-powered vehicle will spend two weeks roaming lunar surface to help scientists understand geology of moonIndia's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has rolled its rover on to the moon's surface after its successful landing at the lunar south pole.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced the rover had ramped down from the lander and India took a walk on the moon". Continue reading...

Our research into women who kill acts as a reminder to challenge our preconceived notions of others

Royal Society review looks at non-pharmaceutical interventions when applied in packages of several measuresMeasures taken during the Covid pandemic such as social distancing and wearing face masks unequivocally" reduced the spread of infections, a report has found.Experts looked at the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) - not drugs or vaccines - when applied in packages that combine a number of measures that complement one another. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: does the UK's first successful womb transplant mean that men could one day carry babies? Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. Yesterday afternoon, a private jet crashed in the Tver region near Moscow, killing all 10 passengers on board. Among them, according to Russian authorities, was Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner paramilitary chief who launched an armed mutiny in June. For the latest on his dramatic yet somehow unsurprising death, visit our live blog.For today, I'll be looking at a very different story, the UK's first ever womb transplant. It's been hailed as a fertility landmark and the dawn of a new era, offering dozens of infertile women the chance to have babies every year. The recipient was a woman born without a womb; the donor was her elder sister, who already has two children. Continue reading...

Twenty years after the first pass at sequencing the entire human genome, the Y chromosome has finally been fully decoded. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Mark Jobling, professor of genetics at the University of Leicester, about why it has proved so tricky, the role of the Y chromosome in our bodies, and the likelihood of it eventually dying out altogetherFind more Guardian reporting on genetics here Continue reading...

Study of chronic fatigue syndrome also finds women are more likely to develop worse symptoms over timeWomen with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) tend to have more symptoms than men and are more likely to develop increasingly severe symptoms over time, according to initial results from a major study.It is already known that women are at higher risk of CFS, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), and the latest study, called DecodeME, provides new insights into how their experience differs from men. The study found that women who have ME/CFS for more than 10 years are more likely to experience increasingly severe symptoms as they age. Continue reading...

Latest technology uses tiny electrodes on brain surface and is faster than synthesisers which rely on eye trackingA severely paralysed woman has been able to speak through an avatar using technology that translated her brain signals into speech and facial expressions.The advance raises hopes that brain-computer-interfaces (BCIs) could be on the brink of transforming the lives of people who have lost the ability to speak due to conditions such as strokes and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Continue reading...

After surgeons perform first womb transplant in UK, we look at other major advances through the years

India has raised its spacefaring profile and will now be seen as low-cost provider for missions possibleFor all the risks, for all that was riding on a successful landing, the descent to the moon's surface was remarkably uneventful, if not exactly stress-free. The Vikram lander, part of India's Chandrayaan-3 mission, dropped steadily on its thrusters to the rock below, slowed to a hover as it approached the ground, and finally came to a rest on the dusty terrain.When confirmation came that the lander was down, anxiety in the control room gave way to cheers and applause. With the soft touchdown, India becomes the first country to land a probe at the moon's south pole, a rugged region where deep craters lie in permanent shadow and where ice could provide water, oxygen and fuel for future missions. The first will be on the moon itself, and in lunar orbit, but they could also supply trips to Mars, with the benefit that the materials do not need to be lifted off the Earth's surface at great cost. It is a region of key scientific interest. Continue reading...

Vikram lander touches down at lunar south pole shortly after 6pm India timeIndia has become the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon, in a historic moment that drew cheers at watching parties around the country.India is on the moon," Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, the chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft's Vikram lander touched down shortly after 6pm (1230 BST) near the little-explored lunar south pole in a world first for any space programme. Continue reading...

India has become the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon, in a moment that drew cheers at parties around the country. The Chandrayaan-3, which means mooncraft" in Sanskrit, put down its Vikram lander shortly after 6pm (1230 GMT) near the little-explored area in a world first for any space programme. People across the country were glued to television screens and said prayers as the spacecraft approached the surface

I've thought long and hard about UFOs and interstellar predators, and I know I should be terrified. However ...Are we alone in the universe? There's hardly an answer to the question that isn't mindblowingly terrifying. The most comforting one, once you know all the options, is that we're not, but the US government is on top of it: various whistleblowers" have recently claimed that aliens have been smashing their craft into remote corners of the world for the past few decades, but federal officials have been retrieving the remains and covering it all up.It's a pleasing idea, because it suggests that we are still in the race for the most imposing sentient beings in the galaxy. We haven't cracked interstellar travel yet, but the beings who have are still working with tech that can be brought down by a bit of dust in the rotors. A bit more focused effort, a sprinkle of reverse engineering, and we'll have our own interstellar armada up and running before any alien civilisations decide to take a serious pop at us. In the meantime, there's always Will Smith.Joel Snape is a writer and fitness expert Continue reading...

Exclusive: Letter signed by more than 1,200 leading figures calls for unambiguous statement' about climate crisisThe Royal Society is under pressure from more than 1,200 leading academics to issue a clear condemnation of the fossil fuel industry.The academics have written to the association of the world's most eminent scientists calling for an unambiguous statement about the culpability of the fossil fuel industry in driving the climate crisis". Continue reading...

According to actor Michael Sheen, the Welsh steel town has an extremely high number of sightings' of unexplained phenomena. Photographer Roo Lewis set out with his Port Talbot UFO Investigation Club Continue reading...

Pioneering operation could allow dozens of infertile women a year to have babiesSurgeons have performed the first womb transplant on a woman in the UK, opening up the possibility for dozens of infertile women to have babies every year. The woman's sister was the living donor of the womb.The 34-year-old was incredibly happy" and over the moon" with the success of the nine-hour operation, according to the medical team behind the pioneering procedure. She now plans to have two children using IVF. Continue reading...

This electrical superhighway' helps to control everything from our breathing to our immune system. Could stimulating it transform physical and mental health?I've made a cup of coffee, written my to-do list and now I'm wiring up my ear to a device that will send an electrical message to my brainstem. If the testimonials are to believed, incorporating this stimulating habit into my daily routine could help to reduce stress and anxiety, curb inflammation and digestive issues, and perhaps improve my sleep and concentration by tapping into the electrical superhighway" that is the vagus nerve.From plunging your face into icy water, to piercing the small flap of cartilage in front of your ear, the internet is awash with tips for hacking this system that carries signals between the brain and chest and abdominal organs. Continue reading...

Technology has the potential to make deep cuts to emissions of the potent greenhouse gas but requires major investmentBacteria that consume the greenhouse gas methane could slow the rate of global heating, according to a study out this week.Methane is a potent greenhouse gas emitted from energy (natural gas and petroleum systems), industry, agriculture, land use and waste management activities. Continue reading...

Light-sensitive proteins below colour-changing cells mean fish can take a photo of their own skin from the inside'What do you call a fish with no eyes? Fsh. What about a fish that can also use its skin as eyes"? Well, that would be a hogfish.Hogfish often use their ability to change colours to support their camouflaging abilities. They also have light-sensing skin, or skin vision, that can help them see" their surroundings. Continue reading...

Australian engineers say they can make concrete nearly 30% stronger by incorporating processed grounds into the materialIn an idea that fittingly arose over a cup of coffee, researchers have devised a technique to recycle used coffee grounds to make stronger concrete.Engineers at RMIT University say they have developed a way to make concrete nearly 30% stronger by incorporating processed coffee grounds into the material. Continue reading...

Scientists find substantial ecological changes' after greening initiative by major road in Melbourne, AustraliaThe benefits of urban greening initiatives are increasingly well documented: they can help mitigate the effects of urban heating, and improve physical health and mental wellbeing. And even small greening actions in cities can significantly improve local biodiversity, new research suggests.Increasing the diversity of native plants in a single urban green space resulted in a sevenfold increase in the number of insect species after three years, Australian researchers have found.Sign up for Guardian Australia's free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...

Antarctica is experiencing disturbing changes - from missing winter sea ice to disintegrating ice shelves - and it's almost certain things will get worse

Why do we perspire? Do men do it more than women? Can you really sweat out the toxins'? Here's all you need to knowIt's getting hot again - and that means sweat. With the possible exception of Prince Andrew, humans are constantly producing insensible perspiration" - the baseline level of sweat - to some degree. Despite that, we know surprisingly little about it. According to Sarah Everts, the author of The Joy of Sweat, which explores the science, culture and history of sweat and our attempts to fight it, there is a dearth of sweat research; there's so much more fundamental research on every other body fluid". So what do and don't we know? Continue reading...