Science | The Guardian

New species named Burgessomedusa phasmiformis was found in Canada and is exceptionally well preservedThe oldest species of swimming jellyfish ever recorded has been discovered in 505m-year-old fossils, scientists have said.The fossils were found at Burgess Shale in Canada, an area known for the number of well-preserved fossils found there. Continue reading...

Collection to include images, objects, magazines, books, podcasts, movies and music from 157 countriesA portrait assembled from Lego bricks, woodcuts printed in Ukrainian soil and a collection of poetry from every continent are among thousands of works to be archived on the moon as a lasting record of human creativity.The collection, known as the Lunar Codex, is being digitised and stored on memory cards or laser-etched on NanoFiche - a 21st-century update on film-based microfiche - in preparation for the missions that will ferry the material to the lunar surface. Continue reading...

Heartbeat' signal from probe, now 12bn miles away, picked up after flight control mistakenly pointed its antenna away from EarthEfforts to re-establish contact with Nasa's Voyager 2 probe have received a boost after the space agency detected a heartbeat" signal from the far-flung probe.Mission controllers stopped hearing from Voyager 2 more than a week ago after sending a faulty command that tilted its antenna to point two degrees away from Earth. The small change in orientation was enough to cut all contact with the probe. Continue reading...

Infectious disease agency suggests central portion of state may have become endemic location' for potentially debilitating diseaseLeprosy cases are surging in Florida, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with a new report suggesting the central area of the state may have become an endemic location" for the infectious, potentially debilitating disease.There were 159 new cases of leprosy in the US in 2020, the most recent year for which data was studied, according to a report published on Monday by the CDC. Florida was among the top reporting states, and almost a fifth of all cases were reported in the state's central region. Continue reading...

The huge cylinder, which was found near Green Head, north of Perth, Western Australia, is most likely from an Indian rocket, space agency says

The comic takes a close look at Earth's celestial near neighbour. Plus: everything you wanted to know about heat pumps. Here's what to watch this evening Continue reading...

As the 10th series of the ITV show finishes, viewers may have noticed the perfectly straight, white teeth of the contestants. But are there risks associated with achieving a flawless smile? In this episode from January 2023, Madeleine Finlay speaks to dentist Paul Woodhouse about some of the dangers of dental tourismClips: Dental Design Turkey, Dental Centre Turkey Continue reading...

Autism without intellectual disabilities could be reframed as human variability' rather than medical condition, says sociologist

Dr Vicky Cleak says the health service must improve access to effective treatment, while Dr Deborah White says the blame doesn't lie with GPsI am a consultant psychiatrist who was trained by, and worked in, the NHS, most recently as a liaison psychiatrist in a general hospital. I saw three young men who had made impulsive suicidal attempts where the underlying cause was attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). I was unable to treat them with effective, evidence-based treatment because the psychiatrists in the mental health trust and GP practices locally would not take over the prescribing of stimulant medication. The service was not commissioned locally and the medication was not on the allowed" formulary.There seem to be several reasons why this is the case, including an erosion of senior doctors' autonomy, a lack of training among doctors, persistent views that ADHD is not real", worries that taking it on would overwhelm an already unmanageable workload, and now a burgeoning private sector with financial interests in the NHS not treating it. Continue reading...

Is this popular family of plants really toxic? Many TikTok influencers seem to think so. Here, dietary experts set the facts straightTikTok might be the perfect place to learn the latest viral dance moves, but it is certainly not an oracle when it comes to health advice. While it can be a useful source of fun recipes and food ideas, it is also a hotbed of misinformation about what to eat - and what not to eat.The latest foods in the line of fire are nightshades - a family of plants that includes potatoes, aubergines, peppers, chillies, goji berries and tomatoes. Despite the widespread popularity of nightshades, some celebrities and influencers recommend we cut them from our diet entirely due to the toxins" they contain. These self-styled health gurus argue that nightshades could be harmful to our health, but dietitians and nutritionists don't agree. Continue reading...

The moon will be 222,000 miles from Earth on TuesdayLook out for the full moon this week on 1 August because it is a supermoon.The moon orbits Earth in a slightly elliptical orbit, meaning that sometimes it is a little closer to Earth and sometimes a little further away. A supermoon takes place when a full moon occurs near the Moon's closest orbital point to Earth. Continue reading...

Particles from asteroids and comets lie untouched for years, providing a time capsule of activityAs they clamber up cathedral walls wearing vacuum cleaner backpacks, the researchers look more like ghostbusters than planetary scientists. But for the team at the University of Kent, the equipment is crucial for collecting cosmic dust that becomes stranded on the ancient roofs after falling to Earth from space.Dr Penny Wozniakiewicz and Dr Matthias van Ginneken plan to visit UK cathedrals in search of the exotic dust particles to understand how much material from space reaches Earth and becomes part of the planet or its atmosphere. Continue reading...

It should be relatively easy to see the cosmic display - ending in a rare blue moon - if the skies are clearStargazers will be treated to a very special double feature next month, with a pair of supermoons appearing in August - closing off with a rare blue moon.The first, called Sturgeon, should be able to be seen from the UK on Tuesday 1 August with its peak at 7.31pm (BST) and just 222,159 miles (357,530km) away. According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the August full moon is traditionally known as the Sturgeon moon because of the abundance of that fish in the Great Lakes in August hundreds of years ago. Continue reading...

When I became pregnant, I didn't think it would bring about any lasting, let alone significant, changes. I was wrongDid you know that you most likely never completely left your biological mother's body? That your cells crossed the placenta while you were growing and probably stuck around in various parts of her body for a while - decades, perhaps for ever?No, it's not the premise of a zombie film. The phenomenon is called fetomaternal microchimerism, and in the past decade scientists have come up with some incredible theories about what the cells might be doing.Lucy Jones is the author of Matrescence, Losing Eden and The Nature Seed Continue reading...

Scientists are cautiously optimistic that new approaches to treating the disabling condition may improve the lives of those affected by itFourteen years ago, the Icelandic neuroscientist Kari Stefansson led a landmark investigation into the genetic risk factors for developing schizophrenia, a debilitating mental health condition in which people may lose touch with reality.Kari is the chief executive of deCode genetics, based in Reykjavik, which has studied genetic information from more than two thirds of the Icelandic population. Since 2009, its work has helped to draw an assocation between people with schizophrenia and those in creative professions. Icelandic writers, painters and musicians were all found to have an inherently higher risk of the condition, which typically develops in adolescence or early adulthood. Continue reading...

Chloe Hamilton reflects on her intense relationship with Lydia, her twin sisterMy birthday in 2016 was a bit bleak. The paper I was working for had announced a tranche of redundancies and as a result I had to cancel a skiing holiday with my identical twin and our friends, so I could stay at home and fight for my job. At 8am, while Lydia was whizzing down pristine white slopes in Val d'Isere, I was sitting in front of my editor, an expanse of pristine white desk between us, trying to convince him to keep me on. It was the first birthday my twin and I had spent apart. Through 25 years of twinhood - even when studying at opposite ends of the country - we had always blown out our candles together.I can't remember whose idea it was for my sister's new boyfriend to take me out that evening, but I'm pretty sure it was his. They'd only been seeing each other for a couple of months and I'd met him just once, briefly, at a local pub. But that night, my birthday night, we went to a restaurant in Soho in London and he bought me dinner and drinks. We talked about my job interview; our experiences of living in London; his love of football; my feelings about the gender pay gap; and, of course, our shared interest - my sister. I got home at 1am. I was tipsy, happy and convinced Lydia should marry him. Five years later, she did. Continue reading...

European Space Agency brought down defunct Aeolus weather monitoring craft in unprecedented manoeuvreA British-built weather monitoring spacecraft has been deliberately guided into the Atlantic Ocean, the first time a defunct satellite has been manoeuvred to perform an assisted crash on Earth.Aeolus, a satellite that has provided data to weather centres across Europe since 2018, was successfully helped to its final resting place by mission controllers at the European Space Agency (Esa). Continue reading...

Leading scientists and medics back London and other clean air schemes and urge politicians to keep their nerveLeading doctors and scientists have warned politicians against watering down plans to expand city-wide schemes aimed at reducing traffic pollution levels linked to thousands of deaths each year.They urged politicians not to lose their nerve over plans to improve poor air quality, such as the expansion of the ultra low emission zone (Ulez) in London, which they said were central to tackling unacceptably high" levels of illness and child deaths, and called for more ambitious policies to reduce toxic air. Continue reading...

Genetically manipulated females in research went on to reproduce - but method unlikely' to work in humansVirgin births may sound biblical, but researchers have said they have found a way to induce female fruit flies to produce offspring when there are no males around.Scientists said they identified the genes that enable one species of fruit fly to produce young without their eggs being fertilised by sperm. They then genetically tweaked another species that normally reproduces sexually to do the same. Continue reading...

The vessel, from the first or second century BC, contains hundreds of jars, giving archaeologists insight into ancient maritime trade routes'An ancient Roman cargo ship dating back to the first or second century BC has been found at the bottom of the Mediterranean in what has been described as an exceptional" discovery.The vessel, which was loaded with hundreds of jars, was found at a depth of about 160 metres (524ft) close to Civitavecchia, an Italian port city about 80km (50 miles) from Rome. Continue reading...

Archaeologists hail exceptional finds' at venue whose existence was previously known only from mentions in ancient textsThe ruins of Nero's Theatre, an imperial theatre referred to in ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of a future Four Seasons hotel, steps away from the Vatican.Archaeologists in Rome have excavated deep under the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020 as part of planned renovations on the frescoed Renaissance building. The palazzo, which takes up a city block along the broad Via della Conciliazione leading to Saint Peter's Square, is home to an ancient Vatican chivalric order that leases the space to a hotel to raise money for Christians in the Holy Land. Continue reading...

One nuclear expert says the film is unrealistic because it portrays quantum mechanics as hard'

Head of World Meteorological Organization also warns climate action is not a luxury but a must' as temperatures soar

European Space Agency to attempt unprecedented manoeuvre despite craft not being designed for controlled re-entryA defunct European satellite is expected to make an unprecedented return to Earth on Friday when mission controllers guide the spacecraft into a fiery dive over the Atlantic Ocean.The Aeolus weather-monitoring satellite was not designed for a controlled re-entry at the end of its mission, but the European Space Agency (Esa) has decided to use what little fuel remains onboard to steer the probe to a watery grave. Continue reading...

Wildfires spread across nine Mediterranean countries, killing at least 40 people, most of them in Algeria. Algerian authorities said 34 people had died in the mountainous northern region, with neighbouring Tunisia similarly battling wildfires.Across the Mediterranean, Sicily and large parts of Calabria were among dozens of wildfires, Italian authorities reported, amid a record-breaking heatwave. Two people were killed in their homes, said officials in Sicily. Firefighters also battled blazes in Turkey, Croatia, Syria, Gran Canaria and a natural park near Lisbon in Portugal.The frequency and intensity of the blazes were 'unequivocally' linked to the human-induced climate emergency, said the scientist Izidine Pinto: 'In terms of heatwaves, more often we see that every study that we do, we see the fingerprint of climate change intensifying these type of events, of heatwaves. So, it's pretty clear'

DNA analysis of tooth enamel solves puzzle of 2,000-year-old grave on Bryher also containing sword and mirrorScientists have solved the mystery of a 2,000-year-old grave on the Isles of Scilly, raising intriguing questions about warfare in iron age Britain.For decades archaeologists have puzzled over whether the stone-lined burial chamber, which was discovered in 1999 on Bryher, contained the remains of a man or a woman. Continue reading...

Is our tendency to expect the worst of people preventing us from supporting those who really need help?In 2007, three experimental psychologists, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, coined the word sugrophobia", which would translate to something like a fear of sucking". The researchers - Kathleen Vohs, Roy Baumeister and Jason Chin - were looking to name the familiar and specific dread that people experience when they get the inkling that they're being a sucker" - that someone is taking advantage of them, partly thanks to their own decisions. The idea that psychologists would study suckers academically seems almost ridiculous at first. But, once you start to look for it, it becomes clear that sugrophobia is not only real, it is a veritable epidemic. Its influence extends from the choices we make as individuals to the society-wide narratives that sow distrust and discrimination.The number of sucker synonyms alone suggests a cultural obsession: pawn, dupe, chump, fool, stooge, loser, mark and so on. Public debates about a wide range of social policies and technological advances feature inchoate fears about who's going to be swindled next. Will ChatGPT help students cheat unwitting teachers? Is remote work popular since the Covid-19 pandemic because employees can slack off more easily? Does forgiving student-loan debt let slacker baristas" exploit hardworking taxpayers, as one US politician suggested? Continue reading...

Plutonium from nuclear weapons, industrial waste, and human activity more broadly have left such a mark on the Earth that a new epoch called the Anthropocene has been proposed. Scientists are debating the specific geological site to define this epoch, with the frontrunner being an unassuming lake in Canada: Crawford Lake.What is it about this spot that holds the secrets to this period of history? From hydrogen bombs to hens' bones, how do we define the Anthropocene, the beginning of the human era on Earth? Ian Sample asks Damian Carrington Continue reading...

Whistleblower David Grusch claims non-human' beings found as issue of alien life receives highest-profile airing before US Congress

The former intelligence officer David Grusch says he faced very brutal' retaliation after going public with claims that the US government conducted a multi-decade programme that collected, and attempted to reverse engineer, crashed UFOs.Grusch took part in a congressional hearing where he laid out allegations against his former employee, stating information came from multiple colleagues but that he could not go 'into specifics' over the cover-up claims

British professor elected chair of UN's expert panel, which warned in March that 1.5C threshold could be hit in 10 yearsThe British professor Jim Skea has been elected to head the UN's climate expert panel, taking the helm of the organisation charged with distilling the best science to guide global policy in a crucial decade in human history.Skea, who is a professor of sustainable energy at Imperial College London and who co-chaired the report on solutions in the panel's latest round of publications, said in a statement he was humbled" to have been elected chair at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Nairobi, Kenya. Continue reading...

Rare volcanic blasts of kimberlites happen about 25m years after continental plates tear apart, researchers findPowerful volcanic eruptions that blast diamonds high into the sky and scatter the precious stones across the Earth's surface have long mystified researchers. But now, scientists have worked out what unfolds more than 100 miles underground to propel the crystals upwards with such spectacular force.The work sheds light on the enigmatic processes that cause the rare eruptions and where diamond-rich deposits are most likely to be found. Continue reading...

You all told us it would be bad but did you think it would get this bad this fast?

Research suggests iron and steel industry waste could be used to lock away carbon for millenniaAs recent extreme weather events in the northern hemisphere have demonstrated, global heating is so far advanced that we will have to rely on some forms of carbon capture to prevent the worst impacts of the climate emergency.Research presented at the Goldschmidt conference in Lyon, France, this month suggests that slag, the waste produced by the iron and steel industry, could be used to lock away carbon dioxide for thousands of years. Continue reading...

Loss of communications with International Space Station forced Nasa to rely on Russian systems insteadA power outage at Nasa's building in Houston disrupted communication between mission control and the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, forcing the space agency to rely on backup control systems for the first time.The outage meant mission control lost command, telemetry and voice communications with the station in orbit. The power outage hit as upgrade work was under way in the building at Houston's Johnson Space Center. Continue reading...

Zambia study finds egg variability and random nest selection by cuckoos helps fork-tailed drongos rumble impostorsCuckoos might be the ultimate avian con artists, laying lookalike eggs in the nests of other birds to avoid raising their own young, but researchers say at least one potential victim is remarkably good at rumbling the fraud.Scientists studying the African cuckoo have revealed that while the birds are able to produce almost identical-looking eggs to those of the fork-tailed drongo, the latter is likely to reject an impostor egg about 94% of the time. Continue reading...

The thing about doppelgangers is that despite looking almost identical, they aren't biologically related. So, what makes them appear so similar? How do totally different people end up with the same face? And, can studying doppelgangers tell us anything about the age-old question of nature v nurture? Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Manel Esteller to find out Continue reading...

People could live longer if they make changes such as managing stress and avoiding cigarettes, study findsAdopting eight lifestyle changes, such as eating well and getting a good night's sleep, could add more than 20 years to your life, research suggests.The study found that people were likely to live longer when they made only minor changes, even if they delayed embracing the healthier habits until middle age.Eat well.Avoid cigarettes.Get a good night's sleep.Be physically active.Manage stress.Avoid binge drinking.Be free from opioid addiction.Have positive social relationships. Continue reading...

We should think of the cosmos as more like an animal than a machineIt is hard to come to terms with the sheer scale of space: hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy and, at a minimum, trillions of galaxies in the universe. But to a cosmologist there is something even more intriguing than the boggling numbers themselves, which is the question of how all these stars and galaxies were created over a period of 13.8 billion years. It's the ultimate prehistoric adventure. Life cannot evolve without a planet, planets do not form without stars, stars must be cradled within galaxies, and galaxies would not exist without a richly structured universe to support them. Our origins are written in the sky, and we are just learning how to read them.It once seemed that, for all its immensity, the cosmos could be understood through the application of a small number of rigid physical laws. Newton encapsulated this idea, showing how apples falling from trees and planetary orbits around our sun arise from the same force, gravity. This kind of radical unification of earthly and heavenly phenomena survives in modern teaching: all the innumerable molecules, atoms and subatomic particles in the universe are expected to obey the same set of laws. Most of the evidence suggests that this assumption holds true, so it should follow that perfecting our understanding of these laws will resolve any remaining questions about cosmic history. Continue reading...

Negotiations stalling over London's request to quit atomic research organisation and for financial rebateThe UK's return to the EU's 85bn Horizon science research programme appears to be hanging by a thread after London's request to quit the associated atomic research organisation, Euratom.The delays are causing huge anxiety in the scientific community. Continue reading...

Extreme weather puzzlesIf you are reading this during your UK staycation, there's a good chance it's bucketing down. Or at least drizzling. If you are on holiday in the Med, you are probably uncomfortably hot. Puzzled by the weather? Try these weather puzzles:1. The weather forecast Continue reading...

The solutions to today's puzzlesToday I set you the following puzzles about the weather.1. The weather forecastThrow it off the top and time how long it takes to reach the bottomMeasure its shadow, and compare to the shadow of the buildingGive it as a gift to someone who knows the answer already, such as the architect or building manager. Continue reading...

As the twilight gives way to night, the waxing gibbous moon and Antares will be shownThe silver light of the moon meets the blood red starlight of Antares this week. The chart shows the view looking due south at 22.00 BST on 28 July.As the twilight dims into the darkness of the night, the waxing gibbous moon and Antares will be revealed. To the eye, they will appear to be just one or two finger widths apart, when holding your hand at arm's length. In reality of course they are at vastly different distances. The moon is literally next door on the cosmic scale while Antares is way beyond our entire solar system, at a distance of about 550 light years from Earth. Continue reading...

Trafalgar Square monument would stand in stark contrast' to treatment codebreaker received in his lifetimeAn LGBTQ+ armed forces charity has backed proposals to erect a statue of the second world war codebreaker Alan Turing on Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth - a high-profile platform for contemporary art commissions.The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, originally made the suggestion in the House of Commons last week in response to an independent review into the service and experience of LGBTQ+ veterans who served under the pre-2000 ban on homosexuality in the armed forces. Continue reading...

The rocker astrophysicist is co-author of a three-dimensional atlas of Bennu, an asteroid explored by the Osiris-Rex probe in 2020A new book on the world's first complete atlas of an asteroid is set to be released by University of Arizona planetary science expert Dante Lauretta and the more unlikely figure of Queen's lead guitarist and little-known astrophysicist Brian May.The duo have teamed up to author Bennu 3-D: Anatomy of an Asteroid, a book that has been described as the first complete and three-dimensional atlas of an asteroid. Continue reading...

My journey into the world showed me that adventures are for me, tooWhen my mum handed me the notebook, I was excited. It was from a trip she'd taken in the 1970s, visiting her aunt in Omaha, Nebraska. I had just done the exact same trip - a flight to New York City, then a Greyhound bus across the Midwest. I had made this trip to research the ebb and flow of women's rights over a generation, but also to understand my mother better, and to tell the story of both in a book. This, therefore, was primary source gold: her private thoughts of that moment in time, perfectly preserved from nearly half a century ago.Or at least some of them were. Because when I took the thin yellow pad in my hands, the faded paper covered in her unmistakable scrawl, I began to notice something. Pages had been removed. Some had parts missing, neatly cut off, as if folded along the line of a ruler and defiantly torn away. It had been redacted by my mother, like a document of national security, and forced into the light by a freedom of information request, by me, her daughter. Continue reading...

Observer investigation shows that majority of Nice drug appraisals involve groups financially linked to maker of pharmaceuticalsDrug companies are systematically funding grassroots patient groups that lobby the NHS medicines watchdog to approve the rollout of their drugs, the Observer can reveal.An investigation by the Observer has found that of 173 drug appraisals conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) since April 2021, 138 involved patient groups that had a financial link to the maker of the drug being assessed, or have since received funding. Continue reading...

Homo naledi was claimed to be artistic, make tools and bury its dead, but warring experts now ask, where's the evidence?It was an announcement that astounded the world of science and made headlines around the globe. Researchers reported last month that they had discovered burials, carved symbols and tools made by an ancient species of small-brained humans. The finds, in South Africa's Rising Star cave system, suggested Homo naledi displayed sophisticated behaviour almost a quarter of a million years before modern humans began making graves and art, even though this primitive species had brains little bigger than those of chimpanzees.The revelations were described online in papers that had still to be peer-reviewed but were nevertheless hailed by the authors as an intellectual revolution, a paradigm shift that challenged previous assumptions about human evolution. Religion and art were in our lineage long before we developed big brains, it was argued. Continue reading...

Charlotte Edwardes meets Kit Connor (11m12s); Marina Hyde implores us to stay angry about the Post Office scandal (1m32s); and Lily Scherlis explores the genesis of boundaries' in the world of therapy (35m25s) Continue reading...

Growing interest in native fungi as enthusiasts across New Zealand hunt for the unusual specimens, from gilled oyster mushrooms to fleshy brains'