Science | The Guardian

UCL study into mental health and wellbeing finds that people generally feel worse at night and on SundaysNightmare day at work? Date stand you up? Don't worry, things really will seem better in the morning.In the most comprehensive study of its kind, scientists have found that generally, the world feels brighter when you wake up. Continue reading...

Scientists taking samples from city's river did not expect to find presence of under-threat molluscsTraces of rare mussels sensitive to pollution and thought to be on the point of extinction in France have been discovered in the Seine in Paris, raising hopes that efforts to clean up the river that bisects the French capital might be succeeding.The findings were made after Olympic swimming events were held in the Seine last year - the first time swimming in the river has been deemed safe in a century. Continue reading...

Meteorite falls are extremely rare and offer a glimpse of the processes that formed our world billions of years ago. When a space rock came to an English market town in 2021, scientists raced to find as much out as they couldAt 21.54 on 28 February 2021, 16 cameras belonging to amateur sky-watching network UKMON picked up a bright shape headed towards Earth. Pictures show a long white line, which was visible for eight seconds, a glowing globule of light against the dark sky. For me it's like fishing," said Richard Kacerek, one of the founders of UKMON. You cast your line and then you wait. There are days when you catch nothing but there are days when you catch a really, really big fish and it's so exciting." The fireball of February 2021 was such a fish: a lump of flaming extraterrestrial rock travelling at a speed of about 8.4 miles a second - 15 times the speed of a rifle bullet - and headed for the Cotswolds market town of Winchcombe.Meteorites are rocks from space that have entered our atmosphere. Most were once part of asteroids - the rocky, airless remnants left over from the formation of our solar system 4.6bn years ago. Almost all of them are what collectors call finds", meaning that the stone has been discovered by searching the ground, having fallen earlier - in most cases several thousand years earlier. A fall", a meteorite that is seen in flight and then recovered, is very, very rare. Worldwide, typically only about 10 such rocks are picked up each year. Before 2021, the last reported UK fall was a rock the size of a cricket ball that landed in a hedge in Glatton in Cambridgeshire in May 1991. Continue reading...

Senators are scheduled to vote today on whether to advance Robert F Kennedy Jr's nomination as Secretary of State for Health and Human Services. RFK Jr is known for his vaccine skepticism and Make America Healthy Again slogan, which has won him support from everyone from wellness fans and crunchy moms' to traditional Republicans. US health reporter Jessica Glenza tells Ian Sample about how he fared at last week's confirmation hearings, and what he might do if he takes a seat in Trump's cabinetSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Regulators to tighten up criteria after concerns over inappropriate private prescriptions of popular drugsAccess to weight-loss jabs through online pharmacies is to be tightened up as part of a crackdown on inappropriate prescriptions - although some experts say even more must be done.Weight-loss injections such as Wegovy, which contains the drug semaglutide, and Mounjaro, which contains the drug tirzepatide, have boomed in popularity after trials showed they can help people lose significant amounts of weight, with many people seeking private prescriptions. Continue reading...

Research shows need for further studies into air pollution and other causal factors, expert saysThe proportion of people being diagnosed with lung cancer who have never smoked is increasing, with air pollution an important factor", the World Health Organization's cancer agency has said.Lung cancer in people who have never smoked cigarettes or tobacco is now estimated to be the fifth highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Continue reading...

The answers to today's prime teasersEarlier today I set two puzzles involving prime numbers - in particular 3, 7 and 11. Primes are on this month's cultural radar thanks to the Apple TV+ thriller Prime Target, which stars hunk du jour Leo Woodall (above.)Here they are again with solutions. Continue reading...

Crevasses increasing in size and depth in response to climate breakdown, Durham University researchers findThe Greenland ice sheet - the second largest body of ice in the world - is cracking more rapidly than ever before as a response to climate breakdown, a study has found.Researchers used 8,000 three-dimensional surface maps from high-resolution commercial satellite imagery to assess the evolution of cracks in the surface of the ice sheet between 2016 and 2021. Continue reading...

Research looking at tissue from postmortems between 1997 and 2024 finds upward trend in contamination

Daily gram of essential fatty acid leads to three to four months rejuvenation of biological age' over three yearsA daily dose of omega-3 oils may slow the ageing process, according to a major clinical trial of interventions that aim to extend humans' healthspan - the number of years spent in good health before a decline in old age.Healthy older people who took one gram of the essential fatty acid for three years were found to have aged three months less than others on the trial, as measured by biological markers. Additional vitamin D and regular exercise boosted the effect to nearly four months, researchers found. Continue reading...

The eternal appeal of prime numbersUPDATE: Read the solutions hereToday's puzzles celebrate prime numbers - those beguiling numbers that divide only by themselves and 1, a sequence that begins 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, and carries on forever.The first question was suggested by Steve Thompson...a maths teacher who became one of the UK's most successful TV screenwriters. Continue reading...

From some high northern latitudes the moon will appear to pass in front of Mars, hiding the planet from viewThe month begins with a well-situated meeting between the moon and Mars. The chart shows the view looking into the east-south-eastern sky from London at 2000 GMT on 9 February.But you don't have to wait this long, because the pair will be visible from sunset, rising from the eastern horizon. The meeting will take place in the constellation of Gemini, the twins. Continue reading...

Researcher at Swansea University says tiny plant spores mixed into bitumen can extend surface lifespan by 30%For all motorists, but perhaps the Ferrari-collecting rocker Rod Stewart in particular, it will be music to the ears: researchers have developed a road surface that heals when it cracks, preventing potholes without a need for human intervention.The international team devised a self-healing bitumen that mends cracks as they form by fusing the asphalt back together. In laboratory tests, pieces of the material repaired small fractures within an hour of them first appearing. Continue reading...

Group of Darwin's frogs threatened by chytrid fungus thrive in specially built room that mimics their natural habitatDozens of endangered froglets have been born at London zoo after conservationists launched an emergency mission to rescue members of the species from a remote national park in Chile.Researchers rushed to Tantauco Park on the southern tip of Chiloe Island after tests confirmed that the lethal chytrid fungus had reached the nature reserve and threatened to wipe out some of the last remaining populations of Darwin's frogs. Continue reading...

Dr Philip Thomas responds to a letter claiming that cold fusion could be a viable alternative to fossil fuelsI was disappointed to see a letter promoting a pseudo-scientific fringe theory (Cold fusion may be a viable energy alternative to end reliance on fossil fuels, Letters, 28 January). Many scientists have tried and failed to reproduce Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons's initial report of cold fusion. After years of intense scrutiny, the mainstream scientific community overwhelmingly concluded by the early 1990s that cold fusion was not a credible idea supported by experimental evidence - a conclusion that stands after three decades of research.The authors of the letter to the Guardian suggest that cold fusion research is now being suppressed from publication. In reality, credible, rigorous studies continue to be published in reputable journals (such as a 2019 study in Nature), but none of them has successfully observed cold fusion. The letter claims that companies have been able to make these reactions work quite reliably", but do not provide any evidence to support this. Continue reading...

It was important for the daughter to acknowledge her sadness but to disentangle it from concepts of guilt, shame and responsibility

It was supposed to be a quiet and peaceful weekend, but it left one writer lost for wordsAs the taxi approached the remote Lake District house where I'd be spending a week doing a silent Buddhist retreat, a thought struck me with Zen-like clarity.You must be out of your tiny mind. Continue reading...

This month is viewed as galaxy season in the northern hemisphere, so seek out wide open spaces around the country to gaze up into the heavens, undimmed by light pollutionAs we streak through winter, shorter daylight hours offer the best opportunity to view the dark skies before the clocks spring forward in March and the constellations shift again. This month is viewed as galaxy season in the northern hemisphere, offering the chance to see the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest galactic neighbour, just 2.5m light years away, with the naked eye. Continue reading...

Research into dark personality traits' has always focused on men. But some experts believe standard testing misses the ways an antisocial personality manifests itself in womenPicture a psychopath. Who do you see in your mind's eye? Chances are it's a man. And chances are your answer would be similar if you were asked to picture a narcissist. From Charles Manson and Ted Bundy to Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump, most famous people we consider psychopathic or narcissistic are male. That's even the case for fiction - think Hannibal Lecter, Patrick Bateman or Norman Bates.Scientists long assumed that women were simply too wonderful to be significantly psychopathic or narcissistic, and didn't bother to study the possibility much, according to Ava Green from City St George's, University of London. But research over the past few decades is increasingly challenging this stereotype, suggesting women can have a dark streak, too. Much like in autism or ADHD, such traits just express themselves slightly differently in women - making them harder to spot with diagnostic tests that were essentially developed for men. Continue reading...

Phosphate, key to food production, is choking waterways, but a new sponge-like material returns it to the soil for cropsIt is one of the least appreciated substances on the planet and its misuse is now threatening to unleash environmental mayhem. Phosphorus is a key component of fertilisers that have become vital in providing food for the world. But at the same time, the spread of these phosphorus compounds - known as phosphates - into rivers, lakes and streams is spreading algal blooms that are killing fish stocks and marine life on a huge scale.It is a striking mismatch that is now being tackled by a project of remarkable simplicity. The company Rookwood Operations, based in Wells, Somerset, has launched a product that enables phosphates to be extracted from problem areas and then reused on farmland. Continue reading...

The British scientist on the risk of humans contracting bird flu, how people would cope with new lockdowns and being asked to pour the tea because she is a womanWendy Barclay is a leading British virologist and head of the department of infectious disease and the Action Medical Research chair in virology at Imperial College London. An expert on the pathogenesis and transmissibility of influenza viruses, she served on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) during the Covid-19 pandemic, providing advice on the risks posed by the coronavirus and appropriate medical countermeasures.What prompted you to study virology?

In fourth part of the inquiry, questons were asked about vaccine trials, procurement and the UK's preparedness for future pandemicsThe Covid inquiry has spent the past three weeks delving into the UK vaccine rollout and the decision-making around new and existing therapies for infected and vulnerable people. Here we look at the key findings from the module, the fourth of 10, in the inquiry chaired by Lady Hallett. Continue reading...

A demographic change is unfolding, and many of us can expect a long life. It's time to provide the support neededAt the age of 111, a British accountant named John Tinniswood has just been declared the oldest man alive. Asked for the secrets to his remarkable longevity, he mentioned his fondness for a plate of fish and chips every Friday. Mostly, he thought it was down to pure luck".When Tinniswood was born in Liverpool in 1912, the idea of living to 111 would have struck his parents as fanciful, if not absurd. The average life expectancy of a British male then was 52 years.Andrew J Scott is Professor of Economics at London Business School and author of The Longevity Imperative : Building a Better Society for Healthier, Longer Lives, Basic Books, 2024. Continue reading...

Clinical trials find one-time gene therapy exa-cel offers functional cure' in 96.6% of patientsA groundbreaking" 1.65m treatment offering a potential cure for people in England living with sickle cell disease has been approved for use on the NHS, the medicines watchdog has announced.Campaigners welcomed news of the approval of the one-time gene therapy, known as exagamglogene autotemcel, or exa-cel, which edits the faulty gene in a patient's own stem cells. Continue reading...

Researchers found that muscles move to orient ears toward sound source in vestigial reactionWiggling your ears might be more of a pub party piece than a survival skill, but humans still try to prick up their ears when listening hard, researchers have found.Ear movement is crucial in many animals, not least in helping them focus their attention on particular noises and work out which direction they are coming from. Continue reading...

Oral drug from Vertex, branded as Journavx, represents alternative to addictive opioids that have fueled US crisisThe US Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug to treat acute pain, the health regulator said on Thursday, offering a first-of-its-kind alternative to addictive opioid painkillers that have fueled a national crisis.The Vertex Pharmaceuticals oral drug, branded Journavx, works by blocking pain signals at their source, unlike opioids, which trigger the brain's reward centers as they travel through the blood and then attach to neural receptors, leading to addiction and abuse. Continue reading...

Readers reflect on Aida Edemariam's piece about what can be a fine line between physical symptoms and conditions dismissed as being all in your head'While enjoying Aida Edemariam's review of current neuro-psychological research (The mind/body revolution: how the division between mental' and physical' illness fails us all, 26 January), I disagree with her assertion that A conceptual division between mind and body has underpinned western culture, and medicine for centuries. Illnesses are physical', or they are mental'."Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the term psychosomatic" in the late 18th century to describe bodymind conditions, while the term placebo" was first used in the same period, referencing a link between imagination and physical symptom. A few years later, in 1800, the physician John Haygarth published the widely read pamphlet Of the Imagination As a Cause and a Cure of Disorders of the Body. Continue reading...

Hundred-metre wide asteroid rises to top of impact risk lists after being spotted in December by automated telescopeA 100 metre-wide asteroid has triggered global planetary defence procedures for the first time after telescope observations revealed it has a chance of colliding with Earth in 2032.Asteroid 2024 YR4 was spotted by an automated telescope in Chile on 27 December last year but has since risen to the top of impact risk lists maintained by the US and European space agencies. Continue reading...

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore expected to stay at space station a week but have been there almost eight monthsNasa's two stuck astronauts took their first spacewalk together on Thursday, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in.Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore floated out to perform maintenance work and wipe the station's exterior for evidence of any microbes that might still be alive after launching from Earth and escaping through vents. Continue reading...

In the second episode of our listener questions special, Ian Sample tells Madeleine Finlay what he has uncovered about who the exercise guidelines were created for and whether they apply to all of us, which exercises are best for keeping us strong, whether we should be eating particular foods when we exercise, and how much protein we need to consume if we're packing in the hours at the gym. With contributions from Jason Gill, professor of cardiometabolic health at the University of Glasgow; Benjamin Wall, professor of nutritional physiology at the University of Exeter; Clyde Williams, emeritus professor of sports science at Loughborough University; Victoria Taylor, head of clinical support at the British Heart Foundation and I-Min Lee, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical SchoolSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepodListen to episode one of our listener questions special all about sugar, seed oils and avoiding sickness Continue reading...

The concept, made popular by self-help guru Mel Robbins, is a reminder that we can't control others' actionsIs there anything more frustrating than other people?Despite our best efforts to persuade them to do, say and be what we want, they persist in upending our plans by making their own decisions, being their own people and thinking their own thoughts. Continue reading...

Cells taken from blood and reprogrammed' into heart muscle cells may help patients with heart failureDamaged hearts can literally be patched up to help them work, say researchers, in what has been hailed as a groundbreaking development for people with advanced heart failure.According to a recent study, heart failure affects more than 64 million people worldwide, with causes including heart attacks, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease. Continue reading...

Analysis by dozens of scientists internationally notes urgent conservation efforts could halt or even reverse losses

Nasa says Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are not stranded and will return to Earth by end of MarchDonald Trump has asked Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring back two astronauts stranded" in space, despite the fact that there is already an agreed plan for SpaceX to bring them back in March and Nasa saying they are not stranded anyway.Trump said that he had asked Musk and SpaceX to get the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration". The US president added on Truth Social: Good luck Elon!!!" Continue reading...

University of Sussex scientist calls promotion of preventative practice when pets are flea free profiteering'Vets need to stop profiteering" by giving dogs and cats preventive flea treatments that are wiping out insects and songbirds, according to a well-known scientist.The standard practice in the UK at present is to advise that customers take a preventative approach, treating their pets every couple of months even if they don't have fleas. Continue reading...

Is screen use really sapping our ability to focus and lowering our IQs? The scientists who have actually analysed the data give their verdictAndrew Przybylski, a professor of human behaviour and technology at Oxford University, is a busy man. It's only midday and already he has attended meetings on Skype, Teams, in person and now FaceTime audio". He appears to be switching seamlessly between these platforms, showing no signs of mental impairment. The erosion of my brain is a function of time and small children," he says. I do not believe there's a force in technology that is more deleterious than the beauty of life."Przybylski should know: he studies technology's effects on cognition and wellbeing. And yet a steady stream of books, podcasts, articles and studies would have you think that digital life is lobotomising us all to the extent that, in December, Oxford University Press announced that its word of the year was brain rot" (technically two words, but we won't quibble) - a metaphor for trivial or unchallenging online material and the effect of scrolling through it. All this has sown widespread fears that the online world that we - and our children - have little choice but to inhabit is altering the structures of our brains, sapping our ability to focus or remember things, and lowering our IQs. Which is a disaster because another thing that can significantly impair cognitive function is worry. Continue reading...

A number of companies have been able to make these low-energy nuclear reactions work reliably, write Brian Josephson, David J Nagel, Alan Smith, Dr Jean-Paul Biberian and Yasuhiro IwamuraLuca Garzotti observes (Letters, 22 January) that serious challenges face the production of energy from processes based on thermonuclear fusion, but failed to mention a crucially important alternative, low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), commonly known as cold fusion.Readers of the Guardian's 2012 obituary of Martin Fleischmann will know that the situation regarding cold fusion is more complicated than that commonly assumed: that the claims of Fleischmann and Stanley Pons for the process were discredited. The reality is that subsequent research showed that it was the critics who were wrong, something not widely known because editors of the main journals, under the impression that the claims were false, blocked the publication of papers suggesting otherwise. Continue reading...

Baby shark Yoko hatched in early January, flummoxing staff and experts at a US aquariumBirds do it, bees do it. Even educated fleas do it, according to Cole Porter's classic song on the universal nature of sex.But a baby swell shark born in a Louisiana aquarium that houses only females has flummoxed marine experts and raised the possibility that the species may not require such earthly pleasures to produce offspring. Continue reading...

Vertebra spotted by fossil hunters on online marketplace is part of first stegosaur ever described by scientistsThe spectacular remains of the first stegosaur to be described by scientists - discovered in a clay pit in Swindon in 1874 - are on display in the grand surroundings of the Natural History Museum in London.But 150 years on, a little piece of the Swindon Stegosaur has been returned to the Wiltshire town, after two fossil hunters spotted one of its vertebrae for sale on an online marketplace site. Continue reading...

We asked for your questions on getting healthy in 2025 and you delivered. In the first episode of our listener questions special, Madeleine Finlay tells Ian Sample what she has uncovered about the scientifically proven ways to cut down on sugar, the truth behind the panic over seed oils, and why it is that some of us seem to have bullet proof immune systems, while others succumb to every bug they encounter. With contributions from Wendy Wood, provost professor emerita of psychology and business at USC Dornsife, John Trowsdale, emeritus professor of immunology at the University of Cambridge and Katherine Appleton, professor of psychology at Bournemouth University Continue reading...

Experts say vomit, probably from a fish, is made up of sea lilies and is an important contribution to reconstructing past ecosystemsA piece of fossilised vomit, dating back to when dinosaurs roamed the earth, has been discovered in Denmark, the Museum of East Zealand has said.The find was made by a local amateur fossil hunter on the Cliffs of Stevns, a Unesco-listed site south of Copenhagen. Continue reading...

Even though women tend to say they prefer older men they scored younger men as more desirable, research showsResearchers have challenged the idea that women prefer men who are older than them after finding precisely the opposite in thousands of women who went on blind dates.Quizzed after their brief encounters, both men and women tended to rate younger dates as more desirable future partners, suggesting men do not have a monopoly on putting a premium on youth. Continue reading...

Second human case of H5N1 bird flu caught on farm in West Midlands but risk to public remains very low, says UKHSAA human case of highly pathogenic bird flu has been detected in England, authorities have said, as bird flu cases escalate across the country.It is only the second symptomatic human case of H5N1 bird flu recorded in the UK, after the first was detected in 2022, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said. Continue reading...

Archaeologists hail discovery of very rare hoard featuring 44 gold coins bearing name of Celtic king CunobelinusA hoard of British coins bearing the inscription of King Cunobelin and found in a Dutch field have been identified as very likely to be the spoils of war of a Roman soldier from the conquest of Britain.The 44 gold coins, known as staters, were discovered alongside 360 Roman coins, by two amateur archaeologists with metal detectors in a field in Bunnik, near Utrecht. The coins are believed to have been given as military pay. Continue reading...

A film festival at a Melbourne planetarium will immerse viewers with a giant curved screen above them - showing dinosaurs, floating heads, and the entire cosmos

For centuries, we've pursued happiness and meaning. But what does that leave out?What if I told you that we could all be rich? Not in dollars or pounds, yen or rupees, but a completely different type of currency. A currency measured in experiences, adventures, lessons learned and stories told. As a social psychologist, I have dedicated my research career to a simple, but universal question: what makes for a good life, and how can we achieve it? For much of human history, we have been presented with two possibilities: pursuing a life of happiness, or a life of meaning. Each of these paths has its benefits and proponents, but decades of psychological research have also revealed their limits.The current cultural conception of happiness, for example, can work against us finding fulfilment. Historically, happiness tended to be defined as the result of good luck" and fortune". Today many expect it to come from individual effort and success. But this, in turn, makes unhappiness and negative emotions such as sadness or anger seem like personal failures. Continue reading...

People try many things to fill the void, but respite is short-lived. Learning to tolerate and understand these emotions will give you a more solid sense of yourselfI just read an extraordinary article by Anna Parker for this website, and it set my mind on fire. Parker interviewed Yannick and Ben Jakober, whose daughter died at 19. In their grief, they began building a unique, 165-strong portrait collection of children from the 16th to 19th centuries, many of whom did not survive to adulthood. The paintings are devastating, captivating, at times disturbing; I was moved and unsettled by this unusual monument to parental grief.There was one particular line in the piece that floored me. Exploring the drive to continue adding painting after painting to the gallery they had built, Ben spoke of kenophobia, the fear of empty rooms or voids: When there was aspace there, we had to fill it.'" Continue reading...

Collaboration over at least three years aims to help understand how pre-cancerous cells develop

Current rules leave door open for medicines to be supplied without appropriate patient consultation, association saysPharmacies are demanding tougher regulation of the online sale of weight-loss jabs amid a predicted new year's boom in demand.The National Pharmacy Association (NPA), who represent independent community pharmacies, urged the regulator to require greater consultation with patients before dispensing weight-loss jabs and other high-risk medication online. Continue reading...