Scientists studying the birds in Antarctica have found they snooze for 11 hours a day without falling deeply asleepSpending your nights sleeping for just four seconds at a time might sound like a form of torture, but not for chinstrap penguins, which fall asleep thousands of times a day, new research finds.Scientists studying the birds on King George Island in Antarctica found they nod off more than 10,000 times a day, allowing them to keep a constant eye on their nests, protecting eggs and chicks from predators. In total, the birds manage 11 hours of snoozing a day - without ever slipping into uninterrupted sleep. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereHancock is now deploying the defence previewed in the Observer on Sunday. (See 9.58am.)He says from the middle of January the DHSC was trying to effectively raise the alarm". He says:We were trying to wake up Whitehall to the scale of the problem and this wasn't a problem that couldn't be addressed only from the health department. Non-pharmaceutical interventions cannot be put in place by a health department. A health department can't shut schools. It should have been grasped and led from the centre of government earlier. And you've seen evidence that repeatedly the department and I tried to make this happen.And we were on occasions blocked, and at other times our concerns were not taken as seriously as they should have been until the very end of February. Continue reading...

From the seemingly inexorable increase in atmospheric CO2 to the rapid growth in green energy, we explore the data as Cop28 beginsThe level of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, has been rising since the Industrial Revolution and is at its highest in about 4m years. The rate of the rise is even more striking, the fastest for 66m years, with scientists saying the world is in uncharted territory". Continue reading...

Four groups claim no legal basis exists for setting up the Federated Data Platform which facilitates information sharingThe NHS has been accused of breaking the law" by creating a massive data platform that will share information about patients.Four organisations are bringing a lawsuit against NHS England claiming that there is no legal basis for its setting up of the Federated Data Platform (FDP). They plan to seek a judicial review of its decision. Continue reading...

Every year the world's leaders gather for the UN climate change conference, and after a year of record temperatures, this year's summit has been called the most vital yet. As Cop28 begins in Dubai, Ian Sample hears from Guardian environment editor and resident Cop expert Fiona Harvey. She explains why this summit proved controversial before it even began, what the main talking points will be, and how countries can still collaborate to meet the goals set out in 2015's Paris agreementClips: BBC, Cop28, SkyKeep up to date with all the Guardian's Cop28 coverage here Continue reading...

UK Biobank offers up biggest ever cache of whole-genome sequences for medical researchA new era of medical discoveries, treatments and cures is on the horizon, researchers say, following the announcement that an unprecedented trove of genetic information is to be made available to scientists.Health researchers from around the world can now apply to study the whole genomes of half a million people enrolled in UK Biobank, a biomedical research project that has compiled detailed health and lifestyle records on individuals since it began 20 years ago. Continue reading...

The resource, which is on the move to Manchester, now ranks as the world's most important health databaseThe origins of the UK Biobank can be traced back to a pilot study in a building in Stockport bordered by the Cheadle Heath police station on one side and the local recreation ground on the other. It was the early 2000s and scientists had realised the potential for genomics and big data to transform health research.With diabetes, cancer, dementia and other ailments on the rise, scientists pushed for a database devoted to genetics, health and lifestyle to help them tease apart who was most at risk and how diseases could be prevented. Continue reading...

People from less privileged background at greater risk of developing condition under age of 65, study findsPeople from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more than three times as likely to experience early-onset dementia, a study has found.The study, published in the Lancet Healthy Longevity journal and conducted by researchers at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, used UK BioBank data of more than 440,000 participants aged between 37 and 73. Continue reading...

Findings could help explain how planets in our own solar system move around the sunSix planets that orbit their star in a coordinated dance have been discovered by scientists, who say the finding could help shed light on why planets in our own solar system move to their own beat.The newly discovered planets orbit a star that sits about 100 light years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, with a mass about 20% smaller than our Sun. Continue reading...

Lead author says study led by University of Sydney is longest ever to have looked at relationship between the two drugs

The astrophysicist and professor likes to ruffle feathers - and says his critics are merely jealous. He discusses UFOs, interstellar objects and the risks of his all-consuming searchAvi Loeb has a chip on his shoulder. For years, the Harvard astrophysicist has been trying to find aliens. He's in the middle of trying to record the entire sky with an international network of telescopes and recently travelled to Papua New Guinea to find out if a meteor detected in 2014 was actually part of an interstellar spaceship. Meanwhile, academics and pundits snipe at him in the media, and he's sick of it.I hear that the scientists say: Why would you go to the Pacific Ocean? It's a waste of time, waste of energy.' And I say: I'm not taking any of your research money; I'm not asking you to do anything. I'm doing the heavy lifting.' Why would they be negative about it?" Loeb complains as he shows me around his mansion in Lexington, Massachusetts, one of the richest boroughs in the US. He's busy rehearsing for a one-man show about his life and work, which he'll perform in his attic tomorrow. Apparently, I'm the only journalist to be invited", apart from the camera crew filming a documentary. Continue reading...

The climate crisis, invasive species, overexploitation of resources and pollution could break down crucial ecosystems. We asked experts to lay out the risks and offer some solutionsThe continued destruction of nature across the planet will result in major shocks to food supplies and safe water, the disappearance of unique species and the loss of landscapes central to human culture and leisure by the middle of this century, experts have warned.By 2050, if humanity does not follow through on commitments to tackle the five main drivers of nature loss critical natural systems could break down just as the human population is projected to peak. Continue reading...

The natural world is caught in a vicious cycle - extreme weather is destroying natural habitats and wildlife, yet these are crucial to fighting the climate crisisNature loss and the climate crisis are locked in a vicious cycle. These two issues are separate yet inextricably linked. As the climate crisis escalates, natural habitats are being destroyed. This in turn exacerbates the climate crisis and loss of wildlife. Here are 10 ways the two issues are connected: Continue reading...

Until now it was unclear what walking speed was needed to reduce risk of type 2 diabetesWalking faster is linked to a significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to the first global study of its kind.Type 2 diabetes is one of the world's major health threats, with its prevalence rising sharply in the last three decades, according to the World Health Organization. Continue reading...

Psychologist who pioneered the treatment of children after such disasters as the Zeebrugge ferry sinking and the King's Cross fireOn 6 March 1987, the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry set sail from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge heading for Dover. The bow doors were not shut and within seconds it flooded with seawater. It capsized and 193 passengers and crew died.Bill (William) Yule, who has died aged 83, was a child psychologist at the Institute of Psychiatry (now the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience) in London and head of clinical psychology at what was then the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley hospital. He was asked to help the surviving children and speaking about it he said: It totally changed my career and my life. I'd never come across such raw emotion." Continue reading...

Science Weekly brings you episode one of a new mini-series from Full Story.Pioneering Australian scientists Graeme Pearman, Lesley Hughes and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg saw the climate crisis coming. Pearman predicted the increase of carbon dioxide levels, Hughes foresaw the alarming number of species extinctions and Hoegh-Guldberg forecast the mass coral bleaching events we're seeing today. All three went on to become some of the country's most respected experts in their fields, travelling the globe, briefing leaders, and assuming the world would take action having heard their alarming findings.In part one of this three-part series, these climate scientists reveal the moment they realised the planet was heading for catastrophe. What did they do when they found out? How did they think the world would respond? And how do they feel today, looking back on that moment of cognisance? Continue reading...

Cancer Research says Britain is lagging behind other comparable countries in terms of survival ratesThousands of people are dying needlessly from cancer because the UK lags behind comparable countries when it comes to survival rates, a damning report says.Big strides forward have been made in treating the disease over the past 50 years, according to the study by Cancer Research UK, but slow and late diagnosis coupled with treatment delays mean the progress is at risk of stalling". Continue reading...

Natural History Museum prepares to study pristine material gathered in Nasa's Osiris-Rex missionA teaspoon's worth of dark dust and granules scooped from an asteroid 200m miles from Earth has arrived at the Natural History Museum in London, where scientists are preparing to unlock its secrets.Researchers at the museum received 100mg of the pristine material, which at 4.6bn years old dates back to the dawn of the solar system, after Nasa's Osiris-Rex mission stopped at asteroid Bennu in 2020 and returned samples to Earth in September. Continue reading...

Injecting stem cells into patients' brains found to be safe and could stop further damage from the diseaseDoctors are cautiously hopeful about a new multiple sclerosis therapy after finding that injecting stem cells into patients' brains was safe and potentially protective against further damage from the disease.The small, early stage trial was only able to assess whether injecting cells directly into the brain was well tolerated by patients, but in tests carried out in the year after treatment, researchers found hints that the cells may have a long-lasting, beneficial impact. Continue reading...

The answers to today's power-hungry philosophers' puzzleEarlier today I set you this puzzle by one of the world's leading logicians about a group of five power-hungry philosophers. Here it is again with the solution.The philosopher's ruling council1 philosopher:proposed council 12: proposal rejected3: 3 24: 2 4 15: 5 1 3 Continue reading...

One person found to be infected with H1N2 strain, of which 50 cases have been reported globally since 2005

Health officials scramble to trace contacts of person infected with H1N2 strain

The idea of a friend who helps you commit to your goals is growing in popularity - whether you want to get fit, write a novel or build your businessWhen news emerged that new US Speaker Mike Johnson and his teenage son monitored each other's pornography intake, the concept of an accountability partner" was probably unfamiliar to many people. Certainly, the Republican politician hasn't done much to sell the idea. Rolling Stone magazine, revelling in the creepy Big Brother-ness" of it all, detailed how the faith-obsessed" politician used an app called Covenant Eyes. Deployed by churches and missionary groups, it sends out weekly reports flagging up all the potentially nefarious online content consumed by an individual and their appointed sin monitor.My accountability partner right now is Jack, my son. He is 17," Johnson said in a resurfaced news clip from last year. If anything objectionable comes up, your accountability partner gets an immediate notice." The mind boggles. For a start, define objectionable? One person's harmless rap video might be another's NSFW (not safe for work) nightmare. And where does this level of micro-monitoring end? Today OnlyFans, the mostly pornographic subscriber platform, tomorrow fried chicken Deliveroos and unwise athleisure purchases? Continue reading...

Reflections on the pioneering astronomer find an unexpected contemporary relevanceLosing GalileoI like to imagine Galileo,

The ruthless pursuit of powerUPDATE: Read the solution hereToday's puzzle concerns a group of five power-hungry schemers who are all desperate to become the top boss. Your task will be to work out how the person of lowest status can triumph above all the others.The puzzle is a new variant of what are often called pirate-division" problems, and was written by Joel David Hamkins, who is currently the O'Hara Professor of Logic at the University of Notre Dame and was previously Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. Continue reading...

Make a note of Aldebaran, the brightest star of Taurus, which means eye of the bull' in ArabicSearch out one of the very oldest recognised constellations this week. Taurus - the bull of heaven - was first recorded by the Babylonians in about 1000BC but other cultures may have associated this grouping of stars with a bull much earlier. At the Lascaux network of caves, in France, 17,000-year-old cave art shows what appears to be similar patterns to the stars of Taurus surrounded by a magnificent rendition of a bull.Taurus is a zodiacal constellation, meaning that the sun's path through the sky passes through its boundaries. Preceding Taurus on the zodiac is Aries, the ram, and following it is Gemini, the twins. Continue reading...

Results challenge assumption we eat highly processed foods because they are more desirable, says study's authorUltra-processed foods are viewed as no more appealing than less processed foods, research has found.A University of Bristol study compared the taste perception of different food types to test the theory that calories and level of processing are key factors influencing how much we like and desire food. Continue reading...

A23a split from the Antarctic's Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986, but it became stuck to the ocean floor and had remained for many years in the Weddell SeaOne of the world's largest icebergs is drifting beyond Antarctic waters, after being grounded for more than three decades, according to the British Antarctic Survey.The iceberg, known as A23a, split from the Antarctic's Filchner Ice Shelf in 1986. But it became stuck to the ocean floor and had remained for many years in the Weddell Sea. Continue reading...

I stood out as different in Llandudno but by learning about its past and mine, it became the home I loveLooking back, a good deal of my younger years seemed to be perched somewhere between if only and my fate. If only my hair was straight, if only my bum was flatter, if only our house was ordinary, if only mum didn't speak Welsh, if only dad could settle in Wales, if only I lived somewhere else, anywhere, anywhere but here. I often felt just too big for my world, out of place. Suspended on a faultline of creative adaptation, I invented Tessa. Tessa was blonde and white and lovely, and she lived somewhere in my dreamscape. She provided me with a lot of comfort in my small girl days, an escape from an odd reality. This may be a known story by now, the story of rural assimilation, mixed-race psychic angst and adaptation, but in fact the story was never about me, or my escape from being me. It is really a story about Wales.I grew up in the 1960s in Llandudno in North Wales, a small seaside town that everyone from the northwest has either been to, or will come to, for a day out at least once. A pastel arc of holiday hotels hugs the shoreline in the bay between two slumbering headlands. A town that once attracted the Victorian and Edwardian monied classes and, later, in droves, factory workers from the northern towns with their newfound leisure time, stepping off the steamers on to the longest pier in Wales. The town offered them, among many pleasures, N-word minstrels and other curiosities in en-plein-air concerts in Happy Valley and in its various indoor theatre halls. Continue reading...

The European Space Agency's plan to build a cargo vessel that can convert to a crew ship is one giant step in its ambitions to compete with rival lunar exploration programmesAs space exploration announcements go, a recent speech at a European Space Agency (Esa) summit could hardly rival President John F Kennedy's oration at Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 1962, when he emphatically announced: We choose to go to the moon." Those words set the US on the path to landing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon on 20 July 1969, effectively ending the space race with the Soviet Union.However, when Esa's director general, Josef Aschbacher, spoke to the press in November, after the Esa space summit in Seville, Spain, what his speech lacked in hyperbole was made up for by its importance to Europe's space programme. Continue reading...

Patients' group says reactions to metamizole can cause sepsis and organ failure - and British and Irish people are at higher riskA patients group representing several British victims has launched legal action against the Spanish government over claims it failed to safeguard people against the potentially fatal side effects of one of the country's most popular painkillers, involved in a series of serious illnesses and deaths.The drug metamizole, commonly sold in Spain under the brand name Nolotil, is banned in several countries, including Britain, the US, India and Australia. It can cause a condition known as agranulocytosis, which reduces white blood cells, increasing the risk of potentially fatal infection. Continue reading...

With Covid-19 facilities being dismantled and an inquiry starting late, the nation's ability to react quickly to future health threats has been lost, experts sayThe UK is now worse prepared for a pandemic than it was when Covid-19 first swept the country, a former government health minister has warned.Lord Bethell, an under-secretary of state at the department of health in 2020, told the Observer that in terms of identifying future threats, and handling any new outbreak, he believes Britain's overstretched health system is now less able to respond to another major viral outbreak. Continue reading...

Use of cattle from country free of mad cow disease means product is safe, experts say, and patients can still donate blood

Ingestion of particulate matter may shorten distance between anus and genitals in the womb, a sign of lower testosterone activityIn-utero exposure to common air pollutants may lower semen quality and increase the risk of reproductive system disease in men, new research finds.The peer-reviewed Rutgers University study looked at whether exposure to particulate matter called 2.5 (PM2.5) and nitrogen oxide may shorten the distance between the anus and genitals, or the anogenital distance, in developing fetuses and newborns. Continue reading...

Scientific specimens and research facilities set to be rehoused in Reading University science park, alongside British Museum archiveIt is intended to be a world-leading research facility that will house some of the UK's greatest collections of historical, botanical and zoological samples. Millions of ancient mosaics and pieces of sculpture, rare plant specimens and fossil remnants will be taken from the British Museum, the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London and rehoused at Reading University's Thames Valley Science Park in Shinfield, Berkshire.London's ageing buildings, crumbling storage space, and soaring land prices mean a move beyond the M25 is the only realistic way to protect the capital's swelling backroom collections of scientific and cultural treasures while improving researchers' access to them, say senior museum staff. The total price-tag for the venture could top half a billion pounds. Continue reading...

Australian researcher Ove Hoegh-Guldberg takes no joy in being proven right about coral bleaching. He says there's still time to act - but only just

Amaterasu particle, one of highest-energy cosmic rays ever detected, is coming from an apparently empty region of spaceAstronomers have detected a rare and extremely high-energy particle falling to Earth that is causing bafflement because it is coming from an apparently empty region of space.The particle, named Amaterasu after the sun goddess in Japanese mythology, is one of the highest-energy cosmic rays ever detected. Continue reading...

England's chief medical officer owned up to experts' ignorance of psychology. If only others had been so candid in admitting their errorsIn 2002, Iain Duncan Smith notoriously declared: Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man." It might have been a rather poor self-description, but it serves as a perfect representation of the chief medical officer for England, Chris Whitty.For nearly two days he quietly answered questions put to him at the Covid inquiry; his tone uniformly reasonable, his demeanour consistently mild. Whitty's former deputy Jonathan Van-Tam, who followed his erstwhile boss at the inquiry, summed him up perfectly at the inquiry. I'm the one who chases the ball," he said. Chris is the one to look at the ball first and makes a more qualified and thoughtful decision about whether it was worth chasing." So if ever Whitty should even amble ballwards, you know to take it very seriously indeed. Continue reading...

Project aims to release hundreds into lochs and streams after centuries of habitat loss and exploitationThe medicinal leech is one of nature's least loved hunters. Armed with three strong interlocking jaws and with a taste for blood, they will swim hungrily towards humans, deer or cattle that wander into their ponds to bathe, fish or drink.Yet this small predator is the focus of an unlikely reintroduction programme by conservationists working in a small laboratory deep in the Scottish Highlands, at a wildlife park best known for its polar bears, wildcats and wolves. Continue reading...

Dictator seen with daughter at celebration for scientists and technicians who finally put Malligyong-1 into space after two failed attemptsThe North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, has celebrated a new era of a space power" with his family including daughter Ju Ae and the scientists who put the North's first spy satellite into orbit.Pyongyang's launch of the Malligyong-1 on Tuesday was its third attempt after failures in May and August. Continue reading...

Epidemiologists say wave in north, particularly among children, may be partly caused by immunity debt'Chinese health authorities have provided the requested data on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children, and have not detected any unusual or novel pathogens, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.The WHO had asked China for more information on Wednesday after groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in north China. Continue reading...

Pollution caused twice as many premature deaths as previously thought, with updated understanding of dangers of PM2.5Coal-fired power plants killed at least 460,000 Americans during the past two decades, causing twice as many premature deaths as previously thought, new research has found.Cars, factories, fire smoke and electricity plants emit tiny toxic air pollutants known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5, which elevate the risk of an array of life-shortening medical conditions including asthma, heart disease, low birth weight and some cancers. Continue reading...

Reports say new model Q* fuelled safety fears, with workers airing their concerns to the board before CEO Sam Altman's sackingOpenAI was reportedly working on an advanced system before Sam Altman's sacking that was so powerful it caused safety concerns among staff at the company.The artificial intelligence model triggered such alarm with some OpenAI researchers that they wrote to the board of directors before Altman's dismissal warning it could threaten humanity, Reuters reported. Continue reading...

After a lifetime cursed with awkward social interactions, learning to take myself less seriously has been a wonderful giftI've gotten to know my postman. Being home during the day means I'm there to answer the door and exchange chit-chat. Sometimes about the weather, sometimes about my dogs who greet him with unfortunate stereotypical anger. Occasionally, I'll pass him in the street and we wave or smile. How nice ... in theory. Somehow, in every instance there is an awkwardness, a palpably tense energy of a high school play where someone is doing their best but keeps flubbing a line, standing off-mark or having their wig fall off.Postman Pat (not his real name) visited my house once not to deliver mail but to borrow a doggy bag to clean up a large deposit left beside a nearby postbox. We stumbled through a mixture of disgusted remarks and jokes about how large the dog must have been before I slipped over running to the cupboard and shoved three bags into his hand. I really only need one, Miss," he said politely, so I reached out and our hands clumsily smooshed into a plasticky high-five. Another time, he delivered a lightweight package. What is this?" I wondered aloud. It feels like an empty wine bottle!" he replied, and we stood there chuckling at nothing. I then remembered the curse. Continue reading...

Momentous' breakthrough as trial finds treatment for nail infections to be highly effective for neglected tropical diseaseA cheap and easily taken drug used to treat fungal nail infections has been found to work against a devastating flesh and bone-eating disease found across Africa, Asia and the Americas.Researchers say the breakthrough offers hope to thousands of patients who have suffered decades of neglect and can face amputations if the disease is left untreated. Continue reading...

23 November 1953: Scientists pronounce the jaw and eyetooth found in 1912 and supposedly evidence of an early human species to be deliberate fakes'The skull which was found at Piltdown in Sussex 40 years ago has lost some of its importance as a relic of primitive man, but it can still cause a considerable flutter among scientists and laymen who take a natural interest in their own ancestors. Three scientists, after careful investigation, now pronounce its jaw and eyetooth to be deliberate fakes"; but this, though the strongest, is only the latest blow to Piltdown Man's pre-eminence. New discoveries and new methods had already brought him down a peg. A few years ago it was found possible by means untried till then to get a rough estimate of the age of fossil skulls: this showed that the Piltdown skull was by no means as old as some others, notably the one found at Swanscombe. The discoverer of the Swanscombe skull, Mr AT Marston, has, by the way, steadfastly maintained that the Piltdown skull and jaw could not possibly belong to the same individual. He was much criticised but is now vindicated; and his Swanscombe skull now takes the place which (as it turns out) Piltdown Man had usurped. But the general view of human evolution may not be much affected, since palaeontologists have all along been troubled by the contradictions in the Piltdown find and have mostly considered it an aberrant form. Continue reading...

Madeleine Finlay sits down with science correspondent Hannah Devlin to discuss the amazing discoveries the James Webb space telescope has made in the year since it became operational. From planets that rain sand, to distant galaxies, Hannah explains how some of these discoveries could fundamentally change our understanding of the universeClips: BBC, NASA, CBSThis episode was amended on Thursday 23rd November 2023 to remove an incorrect reference to astrological" time. Continue reading...

Researchers say they have discovered a common type of bacteria can trigger irritationWhether it's a tickle of the nose, or an irritation in one's hair, itches can be excruciating. Now scientists say they have found a common type of skin bacteria can trigger the sensation.Crucially, as such bacteria are commonly found on the skin of patients with eczema - or atopic dermatitis - the work helps explain why such conditions can be accompanied by the urge to scratch. Continue reading...

It tops a UK list of 25 detested expressions, closely followed by holibobs, according to a new survey. Nom nom nom isn't coolio eitherName: Amazeballs.Age: The earliest known use is from 2008. Continue reading...

Now, a law change to remove anonymity from donors at birth raises complex questions for donor families like mineI've always known I was donor-conceived. As an adult, it is something I take joy in - knowing the unique way I came to be born. Long gone are the days of being afraid that a schoolboy would tease me that the sperm donor my parents used only wanted a couple of quid in his pocket and a glance at some risque magazines.Now, you can catch me boring old friends, strangers I meet in the smoking area, or even first dates about it; sharing with pride a vegan recipe my donor-sibling (dibling) has texted me or the holiday photos I've just received from my sperm donor.Freya Stuart-Hopkins is a recent political science and international relations graduate and soon to be education worker Continue reading...