Symptoms of infection can last two years, but researchers find no lasting cognitive impairment after individuals fully recoverThe so-called brain fog" symptom associated with long Covid is comparable to ageing 10 years, researchers have suggested.In a study by King's College London, researchers investigated the impact of Covid-19 on memory and found cognitive impairment highest in individuals who had tested positive and had more than three months of symptoms. Continue reading...
Kai Bird, author of American Prometheus, says technology is too dangerous to gamble with' and supports senator's attempt to bar itA biographer whose Pulitzer prize-winning book inspired the new movie Oppenheimer has expressed support for a US senator's attempt to bar the use of artificial intelligence in nuclear weapons launches.Humans must always maintain sole control over nuclear weapons," Kai Bird, author of American Prometheus, said in a statement reported by Politico. Continue reading...
Gavin Schmidt of Goddard Institute for Space Studies warns of likelihood of new high as heatwave bakes large parts of planetJuly will likely be Earth's hottest month in hundreds if not thousands of years, Gavin Schmidt, the director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told reporters on Thursday, as a persistent heatwave baked swaths of the US south.Schmidt made the announcement during a meeting at Nasa's Washington headquarters that convened agency climate experts and other leaders, including Nasa administrator Bill Nelson and chief scientist and senior climate adviser Kate Calvin. Continue reading...
Is golf culture to blame? | Fish and chips in The Road to Wigan Pier | Derek Malcom's Magnum Fart | Coutts questionMy psychotherapy colleagues and I are fed up with the grim Jonah Hill situation being put down to the inadequacies of therapy, so it was nice to see Daisy Jones speaking to qualified therapists and putting some distance between unqualified opinions being shared via TikTok and the profoundly delicate and valuable work of long-term psychotherapy (Are Jonah Hill's texts really therapy speak'? I asked a therapist, 13 July). However, it's still grating that the unpleasant actions of a famous actor are being conflated with therapy at all. Hill plays a fair amount of golf, too - perhaps it's golf culture that's really to blame?
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6D4PM)
Males show fewer tooth-rake marks when mothers are present and have stopped breeding, research showsPost-menopausal killer whales protect their sons from getting injured in fights with other whales, scientists have found.The study showed that males showed fewer tooth-rake marks - scars left when whales scrape their teeth across another's skin - when their mother was still present and had stopped breeding. But the protective effect did not extend to daughters. Continue reading...
For years the corporate diktat has been that happiness must be achieved alone, but many are turning to communities for joyThere are 11-year-olds with dyed blue hair, ripped men in their 40s and dirtbag hipsters in their 20s, all hanging from plastic crimps on the walls of a high-ceilinged gym. As electronic dance music plays loudly, Gatorade and microbrews are being served to the audience. They dance and clap in unison. Some gather to chat and cheer at those climbing the walls around them. It's exuberant, anarchic, and although I am not a climber, I am in the middle of it, sitting cross-legged on the sweaty floor.I'm not attending the event, which was organized by a Brooklyn climbing gym, because I love dim lighting, relentless bass and beer - although I do like these things. I am here because my tween daughter has a gift for climbing, and my attending those competitions turned parties is a requirement - she's still a kid - but it also further connects us to this community. Watching her do beta" with dance-like hand and arm movements to figure out a climb before she gets on the wall or smile shyly at the crowd when she tops" and waves to her friends make me proud: she is thinking with her body, but also anchored in a group of enthusiasts I had never known of before she showed them to me. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample, with Prof Jean Palutikof, on (#6D48G)
As record temperatures spread across the world, Ian Sample sets out to understand what heat does to our bodies and what we can do to mitigate it without causing more damage to the environment. He visits Prof Lewis Halsey's team at the University of Roehampton and learns first-hand about the body's response to heat. He also hears from scientists Prof Jean Palutikof and Dr Aaron Bach about how we can adapt buildings and working conditions in a changing climate.Read more Guardian reporting on the climate crisis Continue reading...
A five-year study has revealed that regular and weekend-only exercise give similar cardiovascular health benefitsName: Weekend warriors.Age: The term weekend warrior" probably came out of the US, where, after the second world war, national guard reservists were seen as having it easy compared with regular soldiers on active duty. Continue reading...
Searing temperatures from Spain to Greece underline that the climate emergency cannot be put on hold while other crises are prioritisedThe weather map of southern Europe remains a deep, sinister red, as the heat soars above 40C in places and closer to 50C in Sicily and Sardinia. In Madrid, some nights are equatorial rather than tropical, as the temperature stays above 25C. June was the hottest month recorded on Earth for 120,000 years. The hottest week came early this month. Very dangerous long-duration heat", to use the language of the recent alert issued by the US National Weather Service in Arizona, sums up the experience of the last few weeks across much of the northern hemisphere. Extreme heat, wildfires and floods are ravaging parts of the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, India and China.Global heating is not the sole explanation for the hellish impact of Cerberus and Charon, the heatwaves named after mythical denizens of Hades. As in 2016 - the hottest year ever recorded - an emerging El Nino weather pattern is helping drive the barometer upwards. But each time this natural and sporadic event recurs, typically adding 0.2C to the average global temperature, it heats up a planet that is already warmer than before as a result of greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading...
Weekend warriors' have similarly low risk of heart disease and stroke as those who spread out their physical activityPeople who fit an entire week's recommended exercise into a couple of days have a similarly low risk of heart disease and stroke as those who spread out their physical activity, researchers say.The results from a major study on weekend warriors" against more regular exercisers suggest that even when people are too busy to exercise in the working week, making up for the inactivity at the weekend can still improve cardiovascular health. Continue reading...
Alarming' reports of sudden rise in feline infectious peritonitis thought to point to more virulent strainThousands of cats have died in Cyprus, according to experts who are warning that a more virulent strain of a feline coronavirus is causing severe illness. Separately, dozens of cats have died after being infected with avian flu in Poland.The reports have raised questions about whether there is any connection between the rises in deaths and whether, given that many have pet cats at home, there is any evidence of an increased risk to people. Continue reading...
Discovery in China challenges view of early mammals as fodder' for dinosaurs, say researchersWhether they had sharp teeth, vicious claws or were simply enormous, dinosaurs were creatures to be feared. But a newly identified fossil shows that, at least sometimes, the underdog bit back.Experts revealed the 125m-year-old fossil that froze in time after being taken on by a small mammal a third of its size. They are tangled together, the mammal's teeth sunk into the beaked dinosaur's ribs, its left paw clasping the beast's lower jaw. Continue reading...
It is easy to despair as we leave one geological epoch and enter another. Our situation is dire, but we can address itLand temperatures have hit 60Cin Spain, satellite data shows, with tourists warned to stay off beaches throughout the Mediterranean. Across the pond, more than 100 million Americans are still under extreme heat warnings. When the heat dome" squatting over the south sent thermometers soaring to 56C in Death Valley , it was close to the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth.The sea is little cooler, with Florida ocean temperatures well above 30C. Further north on land, people are being rescued by dinghies and helicopters from suburban streets as heavy rain causes flooding across Pennsylvania and New York and into New England. Vermont has declared a state of emergency. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for parts of the midwest, and a severe thunderstorm watch for other states. Parts of Canada have been on fire for months.Gaia Vince is the author of Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval Continue reading...
The man who led the drive to create a not-for-profit Covid vaccine is now focusing on the deaths caused by global heating and pollutionI speak as a healthcare CEO, but also as a nature lover and as a grandfather," Pascal Soriot, chief executive of Britain's biggest drugmaker, AstraZeneca, told King Charles III and a select audience during London Climate Week at an event in the gothic grandeur of Guildhall.While the Covid-19 pandemic led to the loss of 7 million lives globally, Soriot says that the climate crisis and pollution cost us 7 million to 9 million lives every year". Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample, with Chris Michael and Dr on (#6D24P)
As the International Seabed Authority gathers in Jamaica to thrash out regulations for mining the deep sea, Chris Michael of the Guardian's Seascape team gives Ian Sample the background to this highly contested decision. Ian also hears from the marine biologist Dr Diva Amon about why some scientists are sounding the alarmClips: CBCRead more Guardian reporting on this story from the Seascape team here. Continue reading...
In our early romantic relationships, there is often a mismatch between the strength of our feelings and the stark reality. So why do they linger in our memories?Do you remember your first love? Mine had soulful eyes, a shy smile, and I thought he was beautiful. I spent months trying to put myself in Brad's way. He was in the same tutorial class at secondary school as me, so I enjoyed at least one daily encounter, and others could be manufactured if I walked a certain way to the lunch hall or chose my PE options wisely. I would note our meetings in my diary, where I gave Brad (not his real name) the codename Gregory", which I considered uncrackable and lush, probably because my mother admired Gregory Peck. (I later learned, when she asked me if I knew a boy called Gregory, that my mother had found my diary, but that's another story.) Brad was shy and he never went out with girls. I tormented myself with challenging metaphysical questions, such as, How well do I know Brad?" and, Do I really love him or is this an infatuation?" It stumped me how Brad did not see that he and I were perfect life partners. After two years of Brad remaining steadfastly unobtainable, I decided to go off him. My love ended as abruptly as it started.The following week, Brad caught me up on the path to maths. Will you go out with me?" he said. It seemed implausible to my 15-year-old self that the fates would work this way. Besides, being shy, I tended to underinterpret signals. Do you mean it?" I asked. No shit," he said. Continue reading...
Deneb, Vega and Altair, which star in a Chinese folk story, are riding high in the northern hemisphereThe most prominent star patterns are sometimes not constellations at all. Take the summer triangle. It is a prominent pattern of stars that rides high in the sky at this time of year in the northern hemisphere. The shape is composed of Deneb in Cygnus, the swan; Vega in Lyra, the lyre; and Altair in Aquila, the eagle. All three stars give out a blue-white light.It has been called the summer triangle in the west since at least 1913. Before that, the pattern was marked on 19th-century star charts. The term was popularised by the British astronomer Patrick Moore in the latter half of the 20th century. However, the triplet of stars has long been recognised by other cultures, featuring in, for example, a Chinese folk story about a cowherd and a weaver girl. Continue reading...
A vehicle dashcam and doorbell camera captured the moment when what appeared to be a green-hued meteor lined the night sky of the southern US states on Friday. The American Meteor Society, which observes and collects information on meteors, meteoric fireballs, meteoric trains and related meteoric phenomena, said it had received 49 reports of a fireball being seen from Atlanta to Texas Continue reading...
Negative mental chatter and anxious fantasies may not be all bad - they could bring benefits such as greater creativity and better healthI cannot remember a time when some large worry has not cast a shadow over my day. As a young child, I would lie awake fearing everything from the impending embarrassment of gym class, to the death of my parents, to the prospect of a nuclear holocaust. The form of my fears may have changed as I age, but the tendency to see disaster on the horizon has remained.I am far from alone in this: negative mental chatter and doom-laden fantasies are common characteristics of the personality trait neuroticism". Like other personality traits, this can measured using simple questions such as:Do you suffer from nerves"?Do you worry too long after an embarrassing experience?Are your feelings easily hurt?Are you often troubled by feelings of guilt?Are you an irritable person? Continue reading...
As advanced remedies emerge, the chief executive of Alzheimer's Research UK warns sufferers could miss out as the health service struggles to copeGroundbreaking new dementia drugs are likely to be the preserve of the rich while NHS patients will be subject to a massive postcode lottery" when they become available for the first time in the UK, according to the co-chair of the government's national mission to tackle the condition.Amid multiple scientific and pharmaceutical breakthroughs - the latest of which, donanemab, is to have its full clinical trial results published at a conference in the Netherlands on Monday - more research funding and the establishment of a dedicated government taskforce, it should be a promising time for tackling the disease that affects more than 850,000 people in Britain. Continue reading...
Coincidences are more likely to happen than we think - so we should expect the unexpected and avoid magical thinkingWhen the mathematician Dr Kit Yates sees a weather forecast predicting a 25% chance of rain, he packs an umbrella. When he meets someone who shares his birthday in a crowded room, he is not in the least surprised. And if he comes across an unfamiliar phrase, such as the Baader-Meinhof effect", he knows he is likely to encounter it again, very soon.One of the biggest things I learned from writing my book was that surprisingly unlikely things can and do happen, given enough opportunities," Yates says, referring to his new book, How to Expect the Unexpected. Continue reading...
Light from ancient galaxies took more than 13bn years to reach Nasa's 6.8bn James Webb probe and have provided scientists with stunning imagesIt took a remarkably long time for the light emitted by a group of ancient galaxies to reach the James Webb space telescope last year. Astronomers have calculated that the photons were in transit for more than 13bn years - almost the entire history of the cosmos - before they reached the orbiting observatory.The results are scientifically dramatic and have revealed that the universe was already deep into the process of star formation only a short time after its big bang birth - although the photographs themselves are scarcely stunning in appearance: a handful of smudges, a couple of glowing spheres and an image that has been described as a glowing dog bone. Continue reading...
Natural aquatic supplement could be used to make up for lack of key vitamin B12 in plant-based dietsVitamins for vegans made from algae could soon prove to be the most effective solution to replacing an important nutrient missing from plant-based diets, thanks to recent research by scientists at Cambridge University.The popularity of meat- and dairy-free foods in western diets is leaving many people potentially exposed to vitamin deficiency. In particular, they can suffer from a lack of the vitamin B12, a key nutrient involved in blood and nerve cell manufacture. Continue reading...
More and more youngsters are experiencing serious reactions to everyday foods - and even our pets are suffering. We meet one family who lost a son to anaphylaxis and ask what can be doneWhen five-year-old Benedict Blythe woke up on the morning of 1 December 2021, he was excited that Christmas was coming. He came downstairs to open the first box in his Advent calendar containing a plastic springy frog and a dairy-free white chocolate (Benedict was allergic to milk, along with many other foods including soy, sesame, eggs and nuts). It was Benedict's first term at school - Barnack primary in Stamford - and he loved it so much that back in September, he had cried when he learned that there were no classes at the weekend. That morning, he went off cheerfully to school with a small packet of dairy-free McVitie's Gingerbread Men for snack time. He seemed happy and healthy when he arrived but by the afternoon, he was dead, having collapsed with anaphylaxis.I meet Benedict's mother, Helen Blythe, for coffee one spring morning in a country hotel not far from Stamford where she lives. We sit in a quiet back room and talk for two hours. To start with, there's another person in the room, but when he hears what we will be talking about, he offers awkward condolences and leaves. The random pity of strangers is just one of the many things Helen has had to endure since the death of her son. She tells me that when she meets someone new she has to decide whether to say that she has one child or two (Benedict's younger sister, Etta, also has multiple allergies). When our coffee arrives, it comes with a piece of buttery shortbread but Helen says I should take hers. She went vegan in 2020 when she realised she effectively was already as a vegetarian cooking for two children with milk and egg allergies. Continue reading...
Climate breakdown and crop losses threaten our survival, but the ultra-rich find ever more creative ways to maintain the status quoAccording to Google's news search, the media has run more than 10,000 stories this year about Phillip Schofield, the British television presenter who resigned over an affair with a younger colleague. Google also records a global total of five news stories about a scientific paper published last week, showing that the chances of simultaneous crop losses in the world's major growing regions, caused by climate breakdown, appear to have been dangerously underestimated. In mediaworld, a place that should never be confused with the real world, celebrity gossip is thousands of times more important than existential risk.The new paper explores the impacts on crop production when meanders in the jet stream (Rossby waves) become stuck. Stuck patterns cause extreme weather. To put it crudely, if you live in the northern hemisphere and a kink in the jet stream (the band of strong winds a few miles above the Earth's surface at mid-latitudes) is stuck to the south of you, your weather is likely to be cold and wet. If it's stuck to the north of you, you're likely to suffer escalating heat and drought. Continue reading...
The UK's former chief scientific adviser, a familiar face during Covid, talks about his new role as chair of the London museum and putting its collection at the heart of our climate responseSir Patrick Vallance is sitting in a back office at the Natural History Museum talking about his childhood love of dinosaurs. I was obsessed," says the UK's former chief scientific adviser from behind his trademark tortoiseshell glasses. When I was young, I wanted to be a palaeontologist. I failed at that so I did something else," he says.His favourite exhibit as a boy? Dippy the diplodocus in the hall was definitely one that inspired me. The whale, too. When I walk around now, I think about the meteorites and what that's telling us about outer space." Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6CZJ9)
Nottingham University researchers are simulating black holes with a tiny vortex inside a bell jar of superfluid heliumAt the end of a nondescript corridor at the University of Nottingham is a door labelled simply: Black Hole Laboratory. Within, an experiment is under way in a large, hi-tech bathtub that could offer a unique glimpse of the laws of physics that govern the real thing.The lab is run by Prof Silke Weinfurtner, a pioneer in the field of analogue gravity, whose work has demonstrated uncanny parallels between the mathematics describing fluid systems on Earth and some of the most extreme and inaccessible environments in the universe. Continue reading...
Results reveal activities such as using computer or writing journal associated with 11% drop in risk over 10-year periodTaking part in activities such as chess, writing a journal, or educational classes in older age may help to reduce the risk of dementia, a study has suggested.According to the World Health Organization, more than 55 million people have the disease worldwide, most of them older people. Continue reading...
We would like to hear from anyone who has experienced significant delays after a referral for suspected cancer or during treatmentThe latest cancer waiting time figures in England show that four key waiting time targets have been missed.
Discovery that some species build nests from anti-bird spikes highlights growing awareness in UK that deterrents don't workIt seems like the ultimate revenge: birds have been found constructing nests from the very spikes meant to deter them from perching on buildings. But while humans have no shortage of tactics to wage against unwanted birds, experts say it's time to abandon the war.Though there are myriad ways to deter or remove birds from city roofs, train stations and other settings - from spikes to fire gel, professional falconers and even plastic owls - it seems many lead to only a temporary reprieve. Continue reading...
India's space agency launched a rocket on Friday that will attempt to land a spacecraft at the lunar south pole, an unprecedented feat that would advance the country's position as a significant space power. Television footage showed the Indian Space Research Organisation's launch rocket blast off from the country's main spaceport in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, leaving behind a plume of smoke and fire. The Chandrayaan-3 mission is designed to deploy a lander and rover near the moon's south pole around 23 August
Chandrayaan-3 launches from island in southern India in follow-up to failed effort four years agoAn Indian spacecraft has blazed its way towards the far side of the moon in a follow-up mission to its failed effort nearly four years ago to land a rover softly on the lunar surface, India's space agency said.Chandrayaan-3, the word for moon craft" in Sanskrit, took off from a launch pad in Sriharikota, an island in southern India, with an orbiter, a lander and a rover, in a demonstration of India's emerging space technology. The spacecraft will embark on a journey lasting slightly over a month before landing on the moon's surface later in August. Continue reading...
A rocket engine exploded during a test in Japan on Friday, the latest in a series of failures that have deflated Tokyo's space ambitions. The explosion took place about a minute into the test of the second-stage engine at a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency testing site in Noshiro city, in Akita prefecture, officials said. Footage showed flames shooting out the side of the test facility, before the small building was engulfed in flames and the roof blew off. No injuries were reported
Up to 14 cans of diet drink a day considered safe for 70kg person, as WHO says sweetener is possibly' carcinogenic in larger amountsA widely used artificial sweetener deemed a possible" cause of cancer is safe in limited quantities, such as consuming fewer than nine to 14 cans of soft drink a day, experts have said.The sugar substitute aspartame, used in thousands of products including diet fizzy drinks, ice-cream and chewing gum, was classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans" in a report released on Thursday by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Continue reading...
The Chandrayaan-3 is set to blast off from a spaceport in the southern state of Andhra PradeshIndia's space agency has made final preparations for the launch of a rocket that will attempt to land a rover on the moon and mark the country's arrival as a power in space exploration.Only the United States, the former Soviet Union and China have made successful lunar landings. An attempt by a Japanese start-up earlier this year ended with the lander crashing. Continue reading...
Polissoir', discovered in Valley of Stones nature reserve, was used about 5,000 years ago to hone tools such as axesAt first glance it looked like nothing more than a rugged boulder jumbled among many others on the floor of a valley in the West Country.But a smooth, glossy dip in the stone indicated that it was something very special - a vanishingly rare polissoir", or polishing stone, used 5,000 years ago by Neolithic people to hone tools such as axes. Continue reading...
My friend and colleague Alan Bull, who has died aged 87, was an internationally renowned microbiologist and pioneer of biotechnology, developing procedures that opened up new approaches to studying microbial ecology and pathogenicity. Such developments led to Alan chairing an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development working party on the potential of biotechnology for industrial sustainability (1996-98).Collaboration was central to Alan's work. Together with Ian Swingland, a conservation biology professor at the University of Kent, where Alan spent most of his career, he was a founding trustee in 1989 of the Durrell Trust for Conservation Biology, and in 1992 launched a new journal, Biodiversity and Conservation, which is still going strong. Continue reading...
by Thomas Graham in La Paz, Amrit Dhillon in Delhi an on (#6CYHT)
As research focuses on richer parts of world, people in less developed countries suffer from lack of awareness and supportIn the Hospital del Norte of El Alto, a working-class city in Bolivia, visibly sick patients queue for a consultation with a surgeon. At their feet, two stray dogs sleep on a floor strewn with coca leaves.Dr Silverio Condori, 49, was here when the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Bolivia. He fell sick in June 2020 and spent two months in one of the country's few intensive care units. I came back from another world," he said. Continue reading...
Words such as boundaries' have become common parlance both online and in person - but at what cost to our relationships?What sort of words do you think of when I mention the phrase therapy speak"? Gaslighting? Trauma-dumping? Triggered? Even words like toxic, perhaps. Or, and this is a personal favourite: self-care. In recent years, these terms have started cropping up everywhere: on TikTok, Instagram and sometimes even in our personal lives, especially within romantic scenarios, where we have to balance another person's needs" against our own.These shiny, businesslike phrases have become catch-all ways to describe the way others treat us, and how we ought to treat ourselves, ostensibly from the mouths of therapists. Words like boundaries" have dominated headlines this month after alleged messages between the actor Jonah Hill and his ex-partner Sarah Brady were published online, in which he says she should not post pictures of herself in a bathing suit, go surfing with men, or have friendships that he doesn't approve of, among other things, if they are to continue to have a relationship (demands that, to me, seem far-removed from anything a therapist might endorse as reasonable boundaries").Daisy Jones is a writer and author of All the Things She SaidDo 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...
by Presented by Ian Sample, with Christof Koch and Da on (#6CY21)
Twenty-five years ago in a German bar, neuroscientist Christof Koch bet philosopher David Chalmers that we'd understand the neural basis for consciousness by 2023. Last month, the winner of the bet received a case of wine. Ian Sample talks to Christof and David about why they made the bet, who won, and where we are now in our understanding of this most fundamental aspect of existence.Learn more about the science of consciousness by joining leading neuroscientist professor Anil Seth for a Guardian masterclass. Book here Continue reading...
Scientists studied jewelry made from now extinct creatures and theorize that humans arrived in Americas 27,000 years agoNew research suggests humans lived in South America at the same time as now extinct giant sloths, bolstering evidence that people arrived in the Americas earlier than once thought.Scientists analyzed triangular and teardrop-shaped pendants made of bony material from the sloths. They concluded that the carved and polished shapes and drilled holes were the work of deliberate craftsmanship. Continue reading...
A CSIRO team at Murriyang has been tracking millisecond pulsars for 18 years and say they have evidence supporting the existence of gravitational waves
Science | The Guardian