Every year from the age of 20 my mother, Jean Combes, who has died aged 96, recorded the time of year that four tree species - oak, ash, horse chestnut and lime - came into leaf. What started in 1947 as a personal project, driven by a simple love of nature, turned out to demonstrate with textbook clarity that the long-term trend in Britain has been for spring to start much earlier than it used to. Her 76-year dataset has been used by scientists in climate change modelling, and earned her national recognition in 2008 with appointment as an OBE for services to phenology, the study of periodic events in biological life cycles.Jean's data first came to the attention of scientists in 1995, when she read about the work of the Coventry University climate expert Tim Sparks, and contacted him about what she had been doing. Tim later described her records as probably unique in phenological recording and, as far as we know, the longest recording by a single person anywhere in the world". Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#6F13V)
Exclusive: Fears findings will represent only white population if too few people of colour take partA major study into the effects of cannabis on the human brain is at risk of being partially thwarted because too few black users have agreed to take part.White people have come forward in large numbers offering to get involved in King's College London's 2.5m study of how the drug may contribute to paranoia and psychosis in some users but not others. It is hoped the project will pave the way for wider medicinal use and make illegal recreational use safer. Continue reading...
As a child, I wanted to belong, but didn't see brown girls like me in culture. I'd like space for our stories to be told, tooEvery Sunday, Jaspreet Kaur's mother would rub oil into her daughter's scalp and comb it through her hair while sharing stories of their family's history. The oiling of the hair was a precious time when women caught up and connected to their roots in the stories we were told, the songs we'd sing," Kaur says. The award-winning spoken-word artist, writer and teacher explains that the Sanskrit word sneha not only means to oil" but also to love".When Kaur started secondary school, at the age of 11, the oil in her hair along with the fragrant scent of tarka (spice-infused oil) on her blazer that no amount of Impulse body spray could mask attracted negative attention from other girls who ridiculed her and made comments such as stinks of curry" and greasy hair". From that day, she made the decision to no longer have her hair oiled. Continue reading...
by Words: Amy Fleming Illustrations: Hannah Robinson on (#6F0J7)
From exercise and eating tips to brain health and balance challenges: this is what you need to knowForget lifespan: increasingly, healthspan - the years that we feel healthy and active - has become the holy grail among gerontologists. You only need to watch the Veteran Games to understand the capacity of the human body to age well," says physiotherapist Bhanu Ramaswamy.While there's no denying the fact of ageing, It is important to distinguish between what is a natural part of the process, and less natural ageing, with increasing disability." The slow change in our bodies won't necessarily render us frail or immobile if we take care of ourselves, and there's plenty we can do to help. Here's where to start. Continue reading...
Tucker Carlson, Greta Thunberg, Covid sceptics, military historians, the royal family ... What would my time immersed in the Twitter/X owner's feed reveal about the richest man in the world?What's it like to be Elon Musk? On almost every level it is impossible to imagine - he's just too much. Musk is the hands-on head of three mega-companies, one (Tesla) wildly successful, one (SpaceX) madly aspirational, one (Twitter/X) a shambles. He has plenty of other businesses on the side, including The Boring Company (which makes hi-tech tunnels), Neuralink (which makes brain-computer interfaces), and his current pet favourite xAI (mission: To understand the true nature of the universe"). He is the on-again, off-again richest human being on the planet, his personal net worth sometimes fluctuating by more than $10bn a day as the highly volatile Tesla share price lurches up and down. He is the father of 11 children - one of whom died as an infant, and from one of whom he is currently estranged - with three different women, which to his own mind at least seems to make him some kind of family man. He has 155 million followers on Twitter/X (we'll call it Twitter from now on for simplicity's sake), which is more than anyone else. Only a very few people - Barack Obama (132 million), Justin Bieber (111 million) - can have any idea of what that is like.However, unlike Obama, who follows 550,000 accounts on Twitter, Musk follows only 415. That anyone can copy (or at least they could, before the platform recently changed its code so you can now only see a small handful of users' followers rather than the full list). So that's what I did, spending this past summer following the exact same accounts Musk follows and no one else, to see what the world looks like from inside his personal Twitter bubble. I wanted to be a fly on the wall in the room with the people who are shaping the thoughts of one of the most influential, and unpredictable, individuals on the planet. I should add that I've never followed anyone else on Twitter before - I've never even had a Twitter account - so it was all new to me. What can I say? It's pretty mind-blowing. Continue reading...
World faces malaria emergency' from resistance to insecticides, waning efficacy of drugs, funding shortfalls and climate changeAfrican leaders have warned that the world is facing the biggest malaria emergency" of the past two decades.Heads of state and experts came together in a show of unity to call for urgent action on malaria at the UN general assembly on Friday, saying progress on eradicating the disease faced serious setbacks from mosquitoes' growing resistance to insecticides, and the decreased effectiveness of antimalarial drugs and diagnostic tests. Continue reading...
Adjustment of behaviour shown in study suggests learning is integral function of neuronsJellyfish change their behaviour based on past experiences, researchers have revealed, in a study that suggests learning could be a fundamental property of the way nerve cells work.Unlike humans, jellyfish do not have a central brain. However, box jellyfish have clusters of neurons associated with the creatures' eye-like structures, known as rhopalia, with this system - known as rhopalia - acting as visual information processing centres. Continue reading...
Capsule will contain some of oldest materials formed in solar systemOn Sunday morning, somewhere above the Utah desert, a parachute will open and a capsule containing about 250g of rubble will float to the ground. As it descends, four helicopters bearing scientists, engineers and military safety personnel will race across the arid landscape to recover the precious cargo.Because this is not just any old dirt: these are 4.6bn-year-old chunks of space rock that could not only shed light on how planets formed but how life itself began. Continue reading...
by Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent on (#6EZKK)
WHO says China facing sustained community transmission' of virus first detected as imported case last yearChina is fuelling a global surge in mpox cases, accounting for the majority of new cases reported in September, according to the World Health Organization.The number of weekly cases reported globally increased by 328% in the week to 10 September, data shows. Most of that rise came from China, where more than 500 new cases were reported in August. The WHO said China was experiencing sustained community transmission" of the virus, which was first detected as an imported case in September last year. Continue reading...
Aditi Shankar, eight, has pioneering treatment resulting in her body accepting donor kidney as its ownAn eight-year-old girl has been spared from taking lifelong drugs to stop her body rejecting her kidney transplant thanks to a UK-first treatment.Aditi Shankar's immune system was reprogrammed" after a stem cell transplant, resulting in her body accepting a donor kidney as its own, clinicians said. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science Correspondent on (#6EZ38)
Discovery adds weight to view that Europa's ocean could be most promising place in solar system to look for alien lifeThe vast subterranean ocean of Europa, one of Jupiter's many moons, contains carbon, one of the crucial ingredients for life, scientists have discovered.The observations, by the James Webb space telescope, indicate that carbon dioxide ice on the moon's surface originated from the salty ocean that lies beneath a 10-mile thick crust of ice. Although the findings do not answer the question of whether alien life is lurking in the cold, gloomy depths, they add weight to the view that Europa's ocean could be the most promising place in the solar system to go looking for it. Continue reading...
First comparative research of its kind finds those with lots of social interaction and supportive family coped betterSecondary school pupils in the UK experienced significantly higher rates of depression, social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and overall worse mental wellbeing during the Covid pandemic, research shows.Cases of depression among secondary school pupils aged 11 to 13 rose by 8.5% during the pandemic compared with a 0.3% increase for the same cohort prior to Covid, according to a comparative study by researchers at the University of Oxford's psychiatry department. Continue reading...
Award for work on shapes of proteins raises prospect of AI research earning a Nobel for first timeResearchers behind Google DeepMind's AlphaFold program have landed one of the most prestigious prizes in science for solving a grand challenge in biology that stood for half a century.Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, who led the development of AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence program, share the $250,000 Lasker basic medical research award for their revolutionary technology" to predict the 3D shapes of proteins. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample with Ajit Niranjan, produc on (#6EYDG)
Ian Sample hears from the Guardian's Europe environment correspondent, Ajit Niranjan, about the reporting he has been doing for the launch of our new Europe edition. He talks about Osijek, a Croatian city that has the highest heat mortality rate in Europe ... but no one knows whyVisit the new European digital edition, to find the best of our original journalism about Europe along with the most relevant of our global news and views Continue reading...
by Daniel Boffey in the Esrange Space Center, norther on (#6EYDT)
Sweden is leading in a battle to be the first European space base outside Russia to launch a satellite into orbitFirst place is nice but it's not necessary", says Stefan Gustafsson, a senior official at the Sweden Space Corporation (SSC), with a telling chortle. Other actors are more aiming to be first. Naturally, I think we will be."It was an unconvincing show of magnanimity. There is a space race on, a British rival has already spectacularly fallen by the wayside, and the Swedes have every intention of winning. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6EXYC)
Scientists find continuous crying by mouse pups triggers release of oxytocin, which controls milk-release responseThe brain circuit that causes the sound of a newborn crying to trigger the release of breast milk in mothers has been uncovered by scientists.The study, in mice, gives fresh insights into sophisticated changes that occur in the brain during pregnancy and parenthood. It found that 30 seconds of continuous crying by mouse pups triggered the release of oxytocin, the brain chemical that controls the breast-milk release response in mothers. Continue reading...
Logs shaped with sharp tools on border of river predate rise of modern humans and may have formed walkway or platformResearchers have discovered remnants of what is thought to be the world's oldest known wooden structure, an arrangement of logs on the bank of a river bordering Zambia and Tanzania that predates the rise of modern humans.The simple structure, made by shaping two logs with sharp stone tools, may have formed part of a walkway or platform for human ancestors who lived along the Kalambo River nearly 500,000 years ago. Continue reading...
Armed with plastic pots, probes and the science of eDNA, researchers in Gloucestershire are searching for evidence of the critically endangered fishThe astonishing secrets being revealed by the science of environmental DNA (eDNA) are revolutionising the way in which we study and protect biodiversity, from the densest tropical jungle to the deepest ocean trench. But standing beside a ditch in the Gloucestershire countryside with a team from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), it soon becomes apparent that collecting this biological calling card can still be very rudimentary.A plastic pot attached to a piece of string is cast into the murky water and, once full, reeled back in, sealed and labelled. A slightly more scientific-looking probe is then sent into the water to measure pH levels before the team moves on to sample the next pool. Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: Black professors make up less than 1% of science academics - will a new Royal Society scheme address the imbalance? Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionOfficially there are no black chemistry or physics professors in the UK, which many scientists say is all the data needed to conclude that UK science is institutionally racist.The Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific academy, which aims to promote excellence in science, has set out its mission to change this with a new funding scheme to help black PhD students make the leap into careers in academic research and hopefully, eventually, become professors.Environment | Rishi Sunak is planning to row back on some of the government's net zero policies as the Conservatives attempt to create a dividing line with Labour before the next election. The Guardian understands that the move, expected to be announced this Friday, could include delaying a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and watering down the phasing out of gas boilers.Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told the UN general assembly that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine. Appearing in the assembly chamber in New York for the first time in person, the Ukrainian president used the opportunity to try to galvanise support for his country.Birmingham | The government will send commissioners to run Birmingham city council, after the authority declared itself in effect bankrupt. Britain's largest local authority declared it did not have the resources to balance its budget, and has a shortfall of 87m for the current financial year, projected to rise to 165m in 2024-25.Immigration | The home secretary, Suella Braverman, halted annual inspections of detention centres such as Brook House last year, shortly after ministers received direct warnings that vulnerable people such as torture victims had been left unprotected, the immigration watchdog has disclosed.Ken Livingstone | Former Labour MP and mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, his family has announced. The 78-year-old is being well cared for by his family and friends" as he lives a private life" in retirement, they said in a statement. Continue reading...
Trigger hairs that close its trap contain heat-sensitive cells that react to a rapid temperature riseA fire alarm" has been discovered in a plant. The Venus flytrap is renowned for its carnivorous trap that snaps shut on unsuspecting insects - when the prey touches sensitive trigger hairs an electrical signal is fired across the trap, and two signals in quick succession close the trap in a fraction of a second.But heat-sensitive cells have also been found in the trigger hairs, acting as a fire alarm. The flytrap grows in grassy swamps in North Carolina in the US, where the grass often dries up and can be set alight by lightning, threatening the plant with serious burns. Continue reading...
My friend Andrew Packard, who has died aged 94, was a polymath-scientist and naturalist. His major scientific contribution concerned his work on octopuses, in which he was engaged for most of his life.Andrew's study into why cephalopods change colour in complex patterns demonstrated that it was not just about camouflage but ways of communicating and expressing feelings. Continue reading...
Leading British nephrologist who founded an internationally renowned kidney unit at Guy's hospital in LondonAs a bright young doctor at Guy's hospital in London in the 1960s, Stewart Cameron, who has died aged 89, was determined to be both clinician and researcher, but where should he focus his talents? Irreversible kidney failure - uniformly fatal until then - was just becoming treatable through dialysis or kidney transplantation; both were complex, demanding and dangerous, for patients and doctors alike.Stewart had found his metier and decided to make renal medicine his life's work. The first professor of renal medicine in the UK, he created at Guy's a unit that became internationally known for its research and treatment of kidney failure. Continue reading...
Exciting scientific developments offer solutions to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The only barrier is costThe number one cause of infants being hospitalised in the US and Europe is a virus you've probably never heard of: RSV. Most people experience it as a mild infection resembling a cold. But it can be very serious in babies and elderly people. The tell-tale symptoms are abnormally fast breathing, a caving-in of the chest between and under the ribs, and wheezing or crackles - worrying noises caused by the bronchial tubes being inflamed, or the small air sacs in the lungs filling with fluid. The virus makes it harder to breathe and feed, both of which are essential, but even more so for newborn babies.The gap between public awareness of RSV and the toll it takes is massive. Worldwide, it's estimated that each year 64 million people have RSV, causing about 160,000 deaths. And it's the most common cause of lower respiratory tract infections in young children worldwide, killing an estimated 13,000 infants under six months old and an estimated 101,000 children before they reach the age of five. In the UK, about 33,500 children under five are hospitalised with RSV each year, and it causes 20 to 30 deaths. While we tend to hear less about it, the burden on the NHS caring for RSV in children is higher than that for flu.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of EdinburghDo 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...
Exclusive: Guardian has seen copy of 27-page report that Home Office attempted to keep confidentialThe UK government's official drug advisers privately advocated for a formal repeal of the criminalisation of personal-use drug possession in 2016, a leaked document has revealed.The Guardian has seen a copy of the 27-page pro-decriminalisation report, which the Home Office ignored at the time but then fought a three-year battle to keep confidential after a freedom of information request. Continue reading...
They were long derided as knuckle-draggers, but new discoveries are setting the record straight. As we rethink the nature of the Neanderthals, we could also learn something about our own humanityThere's a human type we've all met: people who find a beleaguered underdog to stick up for. Sometimes, the underdog is an individual - a runt of a boxer, say. Sometimes, it is a nation, threatened by a larger neighbour or by the rising sea. Sometimes, it is a tribe of Indigenous people whose land and health are imperilled. Sometimes, it is a language down to its last native speakers. The underdog needn't be human: there are species of insect, even of fungi, that have their advocates. But what all these cases all have in common is that the objects of concern are still alive, if only just. The point of the advocacy is to prevent their extinction. But what if it's too late? Can there be advocates for the extinct?The past few years have seen an abundance of works of popular science about a variety of human beings who once inhabited Eurasia: Neanderthals". They died out, it appears, 40,000 years ago. That number - 40,000 - is as totemic to Neanderthal specialists as that better known figure, 65 million, is to dinosaur fanciers. Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay, sound on (#6EW6Y)
Asian hornets have been spotted in the UK in record numbers this year, sparking concern about what their presence could mean for our native insects, and in particular bee populations. Madeleine Finlay speaks to ecologist Prof Juliet Osborne about why this species of hornet is so voracious, how European beekeepers have been impacted by their arrival, and how scientists and the government are attempting to prevent them from becoming established hereRead more Guardian reporting on invasive species here Continue reading...
The answers to today's puzzlesEarlier today I set you five problems from Creative Puzzles to Ignite Your Mind, a book of puzzles by Shyam Sunder Gupta, former Principal Chief Engineer of Indian Railways. Here they are again with solutions.1. Brahmagupta's basket Continue reading...
We would like to hear from people who are eligible for antivirals and their experience accessing themDuring the Covid pandemic, a centralised system was developed for prescribing antiviral drugs to high risk patients who test positive for Covid.However in June this year the system was changed, with each NHS integrated care board (ICB) in England now having their own arrangements. As a result, people who are eligible for such drugs now need to contact local health services to find out themselves how to get hold of them if they test positive for Covid. Continue reading...
Susan Murabana's passion for astronomy was only sparked in her 20s as science was just for boys'. Now she tours Kenya with a telescope on a mission to reveal the cosmos to all childrenIt's 1.30am in Kenya's parched and sparsely populated north, and 50 people are lying on their backs on the shore of a dried-up river, staring up at the night sky. Thousands of stars create a vast, glittering canvas with the ghostly glow of the Milky Way clearly visible.These stargazers have travelled 250 miles (400km) overland from Nairobi to Samburu county to witness the Perseid meteor shower - a celestial event that happens every July and August. They are not disappointed: every few minutes, arrows of light shoot across the sky like silent fireworks, prompting gasps and arm-waving as people try to pinpoint individual shooting stars. Continue reading...
Get your brain on trackUPDATE: The solutions can be read hereBy day, Shyam Sunder Gupta was Principal Chief Engineer of Indian Railways. By night, he was a guru of recreational mathematics.For decades, Gupta spent his free time exploring patterns in numbers, his numerical curiosities finding their way into journals, magazines and books. Continue reading...
How proximity to the horizon affects the colours of the moon at different points on EarthCelebrate the equinox this week with the waxing crescent moon, low in the south-south-west, cruising past the red star Antares in Scorpius, the scorpion.The chart shows the view from London at 20:00BST on 21 September. The moon will be approaching its first quarter (half-moon) phase with around 39% of its visible surface illuminated. When it is this low against the horizon, its usually silvery glow will likely be transformed into a ruddier colour. This is because the blue component of its light is scattered out of our direct view by the molecules in the atmosphere. When the moon is close to the horizon, we must look through more of the atmosphere than when it is high, near the zenith, and so the effect of losing the blue light is more pronounced. Continue reading...
Stress and anxiety triggered by sounds from clocks to pigeons to popcorn affects one in five people in the UK. A new book from Dr Jane Gregory, who experiences misophonia, asks whyFor some it is the sound of a bouncing basketball. For others it is the clearing of a throat. For Dr Jane Gregory the list includes pigeons, ticking clocks and the sound of popcorn being eaten.I cried on the plane the other day because I couldn't figure out the volume on my new headphones and so I couldn't block out the sound of a guy sniffing," she says. Continue reading...
From local news to international politics, absolutely nothing makes sense any more. Maybe it never will. I'm calling off the search for meaningSo what's your theory about the Magdeburg sandwich thrower? Just in case you haven't yet encountered this mystery for the ages, a phantom chucker of tinfoil-wrapped sausage, cheese and salami fruhstucksbrotchen (breakfast rolls, a German thing presumably, and I can't say I hate it) has been, well ... not terrorising, but perhaps intriguing or mildly irritating residents along the B184 in the Saxony-Anhalt region of Germany.A picture in the newspaper of local football club manager Holger Becker down on one knee, holding out some crumpled foil in which a worthy-looking brown crust is visible, as if proposing to the viewer with it, is a sublime addition to the canon of angry people in local news pointing at stuff.Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
The sport helped with my tenacity, and my creativity tooIn my Chinese family, many of my older relatives are astonished when they learn I enjoy long-distance running. First, they assume long distance" implies one or two miles. Then, when I tell them it's actually 26.2, they stare at me as if I've forgotten how to count. The more traditional ones say something along the lines of, Girls shouldn't run so much."Over time, however, their complaints have lessened. In recent years, running has grown more mainstream in China, especially among the post-1980s generation. With the rise of the middle class and the influence of globalisation, running clubs have become more popular, as have recreational races. While for women, pale, youthful and slender remains the gold standard for beauty in China, there is also a divergent push for more expansive definitions - one that takes into account physical and mental wellbeing, rather than just thinness. For many of my runner friends, long-distance running is about more than exercise. It's about endurance, independence and doing the thing we thought we couldn't do. And as a writer, it's about expanding the possibilities - the parameters of one's imagination. Continue reading...
Research shows people who speak another language are more utilitarian and flexible, less risk-averse and egotistical, and better able to cope with traumatic memoriesAs Vladimir Nabokov revised his autobiography, Speak, Memory, he found himself in a strange psychological state. He had first written the book in English, published in 1951. A few years later, a New York publisher asked him to translate it back into Russian for the emigre community. The use of his mother tongue brought back a flood of new details from his childhood, which he converted into his adopted language for a final edition, published in 1966.This re-Englishing of a Russian re-version of what had been an English re-telling of Russian memories in the first place, proved to be a diabolical task," he wrote. But some consolation was given me by the thought that such multiple metamorphosis, familiar to butterflies, had not been tried by any human before." Continue reading...
Aids and Covid had the worst impact in poorer countries and communities; a new health accord must address thisThe Covid pandemic was an equivocator with global unity - to misquote the porter in Macbeth. We were united in being affected by the pandemic but both its effects and the responses to it were grossly unequal. More, inequality worsens pandemics, not only current pandemics such as Aids and Covid but those yet to come.Governments are looking to address one side of this equivocation through their negotiations on a pandemic accord that will be discussed during the UN general assembly in New York this month. Such a development is welcome and much needed. It is the other side, inequality, that is missing from the draft pandemic treaty and from governments' pandemic preparedness plans. If lessons are learned, the next pandemic can be made less tragic in its effects. Continue reading...
Vorasidenib worked in trials but is not yet available on the NHSOn a fine spring day two years ago, Shay Emerton was in good spirits playing for an old pupils' school football team. There was just 10 minutes of the game to play, when his life changed for ever.Emerton, 26, said: The goalie kicked to clear the ball and it hit me on the side of the head. I went dizzy and as I went to run off, my legs buckled beneath me. I thought, I am in trouble here' and then blacked out." Continue reading...
With worrying mutations, limited vaccine rollout, vastly reduced testing and a creaking health service, experts are predicting a tough few months aheadNew variant", care home outbreak", cases rising": you'd be forgiven if the headlines around Pirola, or BA.2.86, the latest Covid strain to arrive in the UK, had triggered a severe case of pandemic deja vu. More than two years since the UK's last lockdown, concerns over BA.2.86 - known to have infected dozens of people in the UK as of last weekend, including 28 at a Norfolk care home - have been rising. The worry is over what is the most striking Sars-CoV-2 strain the world has witnessed since the emergence of Omicron", according to Francois Balloux, professor of computational systems biology and director of the University College London Genetics Institute.That Omicron outbreak resulted in almost half of all Britons getting infected with Covid last year, and we may be facing a repeat performance at what scientists say is the worst possible time. With temperatures falling (colder climes help the virus to thrive), schools and universities returning to large-scale indoor mixing - and at the outset of flu season - the overall rise in infections is already translating to hospitalisations and deaths, increased NHS pressure, as well as more than a million suffering from long-term health problems under the umbrella term long Covid", says Stephen Griffin, professor of cancer virology at the University of Leeds and a member of Independent Sage. The NHS is buckling from continued underfunding and staff shortages." Continue reading...
Malaysia trial shows quicker recovery compared with areas replanted with four or just a single native speciesReplanting logged tropical forests with a diverse mixture of seedlings can help them regrow more quickly than allowing trees to regenerate naturally, a study has shown.Satellite observations of one of the largest ecological experiments in the world in the Malaysian state of Sabah have revealed how lowland rainforest recovered over a decade. Continue reading...
The Amazon drama, about migrant worker turned astronaut Jose Hernandez, is part rousing success story and part Nasa PRA young boy, the son of migrant farmers from Mexico, watches the Apollo 11 moon landing on a rickety living room TV set, riveted. The same young boy, now a young man, applies to Nasa's astronaut selection program 11 times, year after year, without success. The young man, now middle-aged, finally makes it to the Kennedy Space Center, only to train several more years for even a shot at exiting Earth.A Million Miles Away, the Amazon biopic of the astronaut Jose Hernandez, has all the ingredients of an inspiring, sanded-down success story: Hernandez, played capably by Michael Pena, went from itinerant student to barrier-breaking electrical engineer to the International Space Station, the first migrant farm worker to go to space. It hits the usual beats of space heroism - the ambition of a gravity-defying dream, the vaunted heroism of the space program, the sacrifices in the name of science and patriotism - with chapters delineated by ingredients to success" in life, first outlined by his father, in line with Hernandez's later career as a motivational speaker. Continue reading...
Research has shown that having more elaborate conversations with infant children could lead to more detailed accounts of personal memories later in life, writes Jonathon O'BrienSophie McBain (The big idea: are memories fact or fiction?, 11 September) raises some interesting questions about infantile amnesia", a phenomenon first named by Sigmund Freud. In recent years, research into infantile amnesia has provided data on the impact of social factors on childhood memory development.Experiments have shown, for example, that more elaborate parental conversation with children between 20 and 29 months was associated with subsequently more detailed accounts of personal memories by the children. Continue reading...
Electric chopsticks and jamais vu' studies also scoop awards recognising research that makes people laugh, then think'From using dead spiders to grip objects to probing the weird feeling that occurs when the same word is written over and over again, researchers investigating some of the quirkiest conundrums in science have been honoured in this year's Ig Nobel prizes.Unlike the rather more stately Nobel prizes - which will be announced next month - the Ig Nobel prizes celebrate unusual areas of research that make people laugh, then think". They also come with a rather less majestic cheque: this year's winning teams will each receive a 10 trillion dollar bill ... from Zimbabwe. Continue reading...
Nasa is to engage a global army of citizen sky watchers to help it solve the mystery of unidentified anomalous phenomena, more commonly known as UFOs, and search for life on other worlds.The space agency has also appointed its first director of UAP research - a de facto chief of UFO studies.Nasa said new technology such as AI will be crucial to the effort to advance analytical techniques, and it wants to eliminate the stigma that surrounds the reporting of sightings by military pilots and the public
Yvonne Whalley on her late husband's pupil who went on to lead the team that cloned Dolly the sheepThe obituary of the cloning pioneer Sir Ian Wilmut (11 September) refers to a biology teacher who had fired his interests. That was, I believe, my husband, Dr Gordon Whalley, who died in 2008. It was good to know that the care lavished on the fruit flies necessary for his classes, as they gravitated from fridge to airing cupboard to ensure that the little beasts were in prime condition, was in a good cause. Indeed, we learned to open our fridge with care.
Agency aims to eliminate stigma that surrounds reporting of sightings and shift conversation from sensationalism to science'Nasa is to engage a global army of citizen sky watchers to help it solve the mystery of unidentified anomalous phenomena, more commonly known as UFOs, and search for life on other worlds.The space agency has also appointed its first director of UAP research - a de facto chief of UFO studies - to coordinate its efforts to help explain the unknown, it announced on Thursday, as it unveiled a science-based road map" to collect future data. Continue reading...
Science | The Guardian