Science | The Guardian

Four naked-eye planets will appear in line, showing solar system's planeThis week we can observe four of the five naked-eye planets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but not Mercury) with the added bonus of a young moon, too. In doing so, we will be able to discern the ecliptic: the plane of the solar system, which defines the path in the sky that the sun, moon and planets all follow.The chart shows a wide swathe of the sky, stretching from the south-east to south-west, as it will appear above London on 31 January at 6.45pm GMT. Starting at the western end of the panorama, a beautifully slender waxing crescent moon will be visible. Just 2.4 days old, only 6.2% of its visible surface will be illuminated. Continue reading...

Jenny Kleeman reports on a new therapy where patients who suffer from psychosis create a digital avatar of the voices they hearClaire was 10 years old when she started hearing voices. They would torment her, call her names and tell her to self-harm.She tells Helen Pidd about her experience of psychosis, where reality is disturbed by hallucinations and delusions. For decades, she struggled to get effective treatment until she joined a digital avatar therapy trial. Continue reading...

Analysis released by new director, John Ratcliffe, suggests the agency believes totality of evidence makes a lab originThe CIA now believes the virus responsible for the coronavirus pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released on Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has low confidence" in its own conclusion.The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA director William Burns. It was declassified and released on Saturday on the orders of president Donald Trump's pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in as director on Thursday. Continue reading...

Exclusive: In-vitro gametes are viewed as the holy grail of fertility researchMass-producing eggs and sperm in a laboratory in order to have a baby with yourself or three other people in a multiplex" parenting arrangement might sound like the plot of a dystopian novel.But these startling scenarios are under consideration by the UK's fertility watchdog, which has concluded that the technology could be on the brink of viability. Continue reading...

New research shows western medicine's traditional split between brain and body is, in fact, far from clear cut - and could provide a breakthrough for many complex conditions

Organic chemist who shared the 2016 Nobel prize in chemistry for his contribution to the development of molecular machinesIn 1991 the organic chemist Sir Fraser Stoddart, who has died aged 82, synthesised artificial molecular machines for the first time. They mimic the way that some biological materials are able to move in a quasi-mechanical, interlocking way.Stoddart had previously noted that natural occurring organic molecules such as the protein myosin, which drives the contraction of muscles, or motor enzymes that help maintain DNA, acted like tiny machines. He realised that the molecular components of these machines could, like the cogs, pistons and switches of macroscale machines, move relative to each other and, more importantly, can bond together mechanically and become entangled. By building their synthetic equivalents, powered by electrical energy, chemical reactions or light, he created an entirely new field in organic chemistry. Continue reading...

Research into the disease has never been more far-reaching, but there is little consensus as to what is causing the rocketing rates of diagnosis in young adultsIn 2022, around 16% of the 20 million people with cancer worldwide were under 50. Cancer has always been markedly more of an older person's disease, says Lynn Turner, director of research at Worldwide Cancer Research. But between 1990 and 2019, the incidence of the disease in under-50s rose by 79%, according to research published in the British Medical Journal in 2023. That short timeframe means the rise cannot be explained by genetic factors, according to Tracey Woodruff, director of the University of California, San Francisco's programme on reproductive health and the environment.Many of these early-onset" cases are happening in wealthier countries, says Kathryn Bradbury, senior research fellow at the University of Auckland's school of population health. The rates are striking because younger populations are mainly non-smokers, says Mary Beth Terry, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. About two-thirds of cancers in under-50s occur in women, she adds. Continue reading...

After Donald Trump's reckless bonfire of safeguards, our best plan is to become tech champions ourselvesIt was only 11 years ago that Prof Stephen Hawking declared that explosive and untrammelled growth in artificial intelligence could menace the future of humanity.Two years ago, more than a thousand leaders in artificial intelligence, fearing loss of control" given its exponential growth to outcomes unknown, called for an immediate six-month pause in AI research pending the creation of common safety standards. In a fortnight, France and India will co-host an international summit in Paris searching for accords better to ensure the safety of AI, following the 2023 British-hosted summit in Bletchley Park. Continue reading...

Danish drug giant found to have failed to accurately report spending even after admitting to errorsThe pharmaceutical watchdog has reprimanded Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk for failing to correctly disclose dozens of payments to the UK health sector as it sought to boost sales of its slimming drugs.The Danish drug giant - Europe's most valuable listed company - systematically misreported, under-reported or did not disclose funding given over seven years to pharmacy firms, obesity charities, training providers, professional bodies and patient groups. Continue reading...

The Oxford English Dictionary announced its word of the year at the end of 2024: brain rot'. The term relates to the supposedly negative effects of consuming social media content, but it struck a chord more widely with many of us who feel we just don't have the mental capacity we once did. Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, has been studying our waning attention spans for 20 years. She tells Madeleine Finlay why she believes our powers of concentration are not beyond rescue, and reveals her top tips for finding focus

Describing issues of autonomy, femgore, worth and hunger all had ain impact on what I wrote and how I felt about myself, says Lucy RoseMy conflict with food began before I was born. According to family lore, I couldn't be sated, even in utero. I consumed everything, apparently putting my twin at such risk that we were delivered prematurely. There are even stories of me climbing into my twin's crib late at night and stealing their milk bottle, swapping it out with my empty one. I've always felt hunger, but I soon learned to associate want" with shame.In 2020, I started working on a novel about mother and daughter cannibals, who lure lost souls to their rural forest homestead and bake them into pies and stews. It wasn't a conscious choice to write about women with a carnal desire to feast, but slowly, deep into drafting - which is a very physical act for me because I write by longhand - I realised that my relationship with food and consumption was changing. Exposure to these women, who binged without guilt or inhibition, forced me to confront my fraught relationship with food, and in turn, eventually, heal it. Continue reading...

Greater mouse-eared bat was declared extinct in the UK but ecologists now believe population recovery is possibleFor 21 long winters, Britain's loneliest bat hibernated alone in a disused railway tunnel in Sussex.The male greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) was the only known individual of his kind in the country after he was discovered in 2002 - a decade after the rare species was officially declared extinct. Continue reading...

Researchers say study may help global efforts in controlling disease that still destroys crops todayIt was a disaster that killed about 1 million people, devastating 19th century Ireland, but while the potato disease linked to the Irish famine is well known, a battle has raged over where it originated.Scientists have long been divided over whether the fungus-like pathogen Phtytophthora infestans cropped up in the Andes or originated in Mexico. Continue reading...

As The Traitors final airs, Prof Richard Wiseman - a psychologist and magician - says telling a good lie is very difficult'As The Traitors final airs on BBC One, a show in which the faithfuls battle to expose the traitors to win a cash prize, we spoke to an expert in the psychology of deception on how to lie.Richard Wiseman, a professor of the public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, has an interest in deception both academically and professionally - he doubles up as a professional magician. Continue reading...

People in their 60s are living longer today than in previous generations. We asked experts how they can best prepareThe percentage of people 65 or older has rapidly increased over the last 100 years. This group grew about five times faster than the total population between 1920 and 2020.Baby boomers, who started turning 65 in 2011, are primarily behind this growth spurt. The sixtysomethings of today are also living longer than previous generations. Continue reading...

Scottish researchers find childhood pollution a likely factor, but association with mid-life air quality less clearResearchers in Scotland have found patterns in health data that suggest that air pollution breathed by children may affect their chances of getting dementia in later life.The first clue that air pollution may affect brain health was discovered about 20 years ago, when researchers found brain changes in pet dogs in chronically polluted Mexico City. Continue reading...

Data based on recorded deaths raises concerns around under-diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorderMen with a diagnosis of ADHD die seven years sooner, on average, than similar people without, while for women the life expectancy gap is almost nine years, the first study of its kind has revealed.Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can cause difficulties in concentration and problems with impulsiveness, although people with ADHD do not necessarily experience both. While estimates vary, studies suggest 3-4% of adults worldwide have ADHD. Continue reading...

A decade ago, up to 1,000 of the apex predators lived in one South African bay. Now they have gone, fleeing from killer whales. But the gap they have left creates problems for other speciesThe first carcass of a great white, a small female, washed up in South Africa on 9 February 2017. The 2.6-metre-long body had no hook or net marks, ruling out human involvement. Whatever had killed her had vanished. So too had all the other great white sharks in Gansbaai on the Western Cape, Dr Alison Towner noticed.We had several sharks acoustically tagged, and later realised three had moved as far as Plettenberg Bay and Algoa Bay, more than 500km [300 miles] east," says the Rhodes University marine biologist. Continue reading...

Ian Sample speaks to Keon West, a professor of social psychology at the University of London, whose new book, The Science of Racism, explores what science can reveal about racism, the inventive methods scientists have used to study it and the scientifically proven ways of tackling racism and discriminationOrder The Science of Racism by Keon West from the Guardian bookshopSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Significant obstacles lie ahead in the quest for commercially viable nuclear fusion, writes Luca GarzottiI can't help thinking Ed Miliband has not been accurately briefed when he says a government funding pledge means Britain is within grasping distance" of secure, clean, unlimited energy" from nuclear fusion (Ministers pledge record 410m to support UK nuclear fusion energy, 16 January).Before we start talking about nuclear fusion via magnetic confinement as a commercially viable source of energy, five main challenges have to be met by the scientific community, each one of them a potential showstopper. Wehave to demonstrate: Continue reading...

Potential changes to US policy under Trump could also hamper aid efforts to most vulnerable, says former UK foreign secretaryThe rise of alternative facts" and the end of automatic deference to doctors is creating dangers for global efforts to vaccinate vulnerable children, David Miliband has warned.The former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee (IRC), was speaking hours before Donald Trump's inauguration as the 47th president of the US. Continue reading...

Our job is to imagine scenarios from the impact of the climate crisis to the rise of AI - and decision-makers need our help

Huge areas of rock appear to be remains of submerged plates, despite being far from plate boundariesWhat is going on underneath the Pacific Ocean? Scientists have discovered huge chunks of rock that look like the remains of submerged plates in the deep mantle underneath the western Pacific Ocean. Is there a lost world down there?Researchers used all the different types of earthquake waves to build a high-resolution model of the Earth's interior. The model, published in Nature Scientific Reports, has revealed a number of anomalous regions in the deep mantle, including a huge area under the western Pacific Ocean where seismic waves travel slower than average. Traditionally slow seismic waves have been interpreted as areas of cold tectonic plate material, recycled into the mantle over the past 200m years. However, this location is far from plate boundaries, with no geological evidence of subduction. Continue reading...

We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.This week, from 2016: Jeffrey Karp is at the forefront of a new generation of scientists using nature's blueprints to create breakthrough medical technologies. Can bioinspiration help to solve some of humanity's most urgent problems? By Laura Parker. Read by Adetomiwa Edun Continue reading...

Data from dozens of countries reveals height and weight differences between sexes have increased since 1900Amid the profound changes humanity has witnessed, one might be forgiven for failing to notice a rise in sexy and formidable men: those tall, broad-shouldered types that are strangers to self-doubt.But according to a new study, men around the world have gained height and weight twice as fast as women over the past century, driving greater differences between the sexes. Continue reading...

Analysis shows patients need to exercise and keep their weight down to reap maximum benefitMuscular strength and good physical fitness could almost halve the risk of cancer patients dying from their disease, according to a study that suggests tailored exercise plans may increase survival.The likelihood of people dying from their cancer has decreased significantly in recent decades owing to greater awareness of symptoms, and better access to treatment and care. Continue reading...

Using drugs approved for other conditions could dramatically speed up hunt for cure, experts sayAntibiotics, antivirals and vaccines could be used to tackle dementia, according to experts, who say repurposing drugs approved for other conditions could dramatically speed up the hunt for a cure.The number of people living with the disease globally is forecast to almost triple to 153 million by 2050, presenting a major threat to health and social care systems. Continue reading...

Presence, the story of a family haunting where the camera's eye is the spectre's point of view, draws on what are for many people all too palpable phenomenaSteven Soderbergh's new film Presence this week heralds the return of a cinematic technique familiar to many fans of scary movies: the point-of-view shot. Viewing a scene through the eyes of an antagonist - such as the extended opening of John Carpenter's Halloween - can be a chilling way of drawing viewers into the action, making us feel like we are both the watcher and being watched. When combined with sustained shots without an edit, we become eavesdroppers and voyeurs, lingering long past when the scene should have moved on. From Hitchcock's Rear Window to Haneke's Hidden, a camera that holds it gaze can fill us with a creeping sense of dread.Presence uses both tricks, telling us a familiar story (a family with baggage move into a haunted house) in an unfamiliar way. Told from the perspective of a ghostly presence, we witness every scene via the point-of-view shot, sweeping between rooms to hear intimate conversations and hovering over characters as they sleep. As the ghost we watch through upstairs windows, peer round closet doors, and recede into corners while scenes unfold. Continue reading...

Expert says the planet parade will be best viewed around 21 January and recommends downloading a sky map app to help see when the planets align

A podcast promoting claims that non-verbal autistic children can read minds briefly knocked Joe Rogan off the top of the charts this month, which made the Science Weekly team wonder, how has science attempted to prove or disprove the existence of mind reading? To find out, Ian Sample speaks to Chris French, emeritus professor of psychology at Goldsmiths University. They discuss how scientists have tested this phenomenon, what else could be behind the apparent ability of some people to read minds, and why the idea is still so popularClip: The Telepathy TapesSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...

Mayor says he will invite incoming US ambassador to visit the memorial to Sir Ernest Rutherford, the New Zealander who split the atom in a British laboratoryNew Zealanders are not typically ones for splitting hairs, but when it comes to who split the atom, you had better have your facts straight - particularly if you have just been sworn in as the 47th US president.During his inaugural address on Monday, Donald Trump reeled off a list of US achievements, including a claim that its experts split the atom. Continue reading...

Animal welfare | Nuclear fusion | Atomic waste | Managing investments | What's in a name?While I am, of course, concerned about the risks posed to the UK's delicate biosystem by the inadvertent importing of harmful fauna and flora from foreign countries, your article (Colombian tree frog found by Sheffield florist highlights invasive species threat, 17 January) left a vital question unanswered. What happened to the little tree frog?

Two leading contenders for Oscars this year have revealed use of artificial intelligence in the editing suite - will it affect their chances?The use of artificial intelligence could become a ferocious battleground during movie awards season, as at least two major contenders were revealed to have used voice-cloning to enhance actors' performances.In an interview with moving-image tech publication Red Shark News, The Brutalist editor David Jancso said that, in an effort to create Hungarian dialogue so perfect that not even locals will spot any difference", Jancso fed lead actors Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones's voices into AI software, as well as his own. Continue reading...

Psychotic disorders also among conditions found less likely when people with diabetes took medications found in jabsPeople with diabetes taking medications found in weight-loss jabs have a reduced risk of 42 conditions, research has found, paving the way for such drugs being used to treat a host of health problems.The most comprehensive study of its kind showed that psychotic disorders, infections and dementia were among conditions found to be less likely to occur when using GLP-1RAs, which are found in the medications Saxenda, Wegovy and Mounjaro. Continue reading...

The answer to today's queueing condundrumEarlier today I set you the following logic problem, as a retrospective commemoration of World Logic Day. Here it is again with the solution - and a comment about how it relates to the real world.Queue eye Continue reading...

Smell has an outsize effect on our thoughts and moods, so it's worth paying more attention to itIf you have been on holiday recently, do you think you could recall and describe what the place smelled like? You probably don't get asked that question very often. And yet, the characteristic smell of a place seems to contain its special essence. Photos can't truly bring back the feeling of being there, but smell has that power.Our sense of smell develops before we're born, and it is strongly linked to brain centres associated with creating new memories and perceiving emotions andbodily sensations. As a result, smells can merge these together, forming vividly personal memories. Most of us have smells that act as a trigger, transporting us to another time and place; for some it is the ocean breeze in summer, for others it might be urban smells of coffee houses, exhaust fumes or a hot pavement on a sunny day. I remember moving to Chicago after completing my PhD in Sweden 15 years ago. In the taxi from the train station, amid the gloomy midwestern winter, I realised the entire city was doused in the mostincredible chocolate smell. I opened the window and took a deep sniff. That familiar scent, coming from a chocolate factory on the west side of town, immediately made me feel at ease. I believe Proust was right when he wrote that smells contain the vast structure of recollection". Continue reading...

Even average use of nitrogen fertilisers cut flower numbers fivefold and halved pollinating insectsUsing high levels of common fertilisers on grassland halves pollinator numbers and drastically reduces the number of flowers, research from the world's longest-running ecological experiment has found.Increasing the amount of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus doused on agricultural grassland reduced flower numbers fivefold and halved the number of pollinating insects, according to the paper by the University of Sussex and Rothamsted Research. Continue reading...

A head-scratching hat puzzleUPDATE: Read the solutions hereToday's puzzle retrospectively commemorates UNESCO's World Logic Day, which took place last week. (The date, January 14, is both the day Kurt Godel died and the day Alfred Tarski was born, a calendrical coincidence that links the pre-eminent logicians of the twentieth century.)It is a logic puzzle and, as is typical for the genre, concerns a group of clever people wearing colourful headwear. Continue reading...

The bright beacon of Venus will be a brilliant white, with the distant and fainter Saturn a muted yellowVenus continues to shine like a brilliant beacon in the evening sky. This week it draws close to Saturn, offering an opportunity to see the nearest and further planets that are readily available to the naked eye.The chart shows the view looking south-west from London on 20 January at 18.30 GMT. On this evening, Venus will be approximately 90m km from us, whereas Saturn is out at 1,540m km. Continue reading...

New research into the single-celled organism is providing clues about what the early planet looked like - and raising the prospect that we may not be alone in the universeFor scientists, our earliest ancestor wasn't Adam or Eve but Luca. Luca didn't look anything like us - it was a single-celled bacterium-like organism. A recent study by a team of scientists based in the UK has delivered rather shocking news about this illustrious forebear. Despite having lived almost as far back as seems possible, Luca was surprisingly similar to modern bacteria - and what's more, it apparently lived in a thriving community of other organisms that have left no trace on Earth today.Luca - short for the last universal common ancestor, the progenitor of all known life on Earth - seems to have been born 4.2bn years ago. Back then our planet was no Eden but something of a hell on Earth: a seething mass of volcanoes pummelled by giant meteorites, and having recovered from a cosmic collision that blasted the world apart and created the moon from some of the fragments. There is good reason why the geological aeon before 4bn years ago is called the Hadean, after the Greek god of the underworld Hades. Continue reading...

In the hit TV reality show, as in life, we like to think we are autonomous. In fact, we follow the herdWhat explains the stupendous success of The Traitors? More than 9 million people tuned in to the first episode of this, its third season, and last week it overtook Strictly Come Dancing to become the BBC's most watched reality show. With this sort of trajectory, I'm afraid we must prepare for thousands of imitators to follow in its wake. So what should they be trying to do?Part of the attraction of the show is its host, Claudia Winkleman, who presides over the setting - a luscious castle in Scotland - in the manner of a campy gothic headmistress: talking softly to owls, ruthlessly ordering contestants into coffins and gunge, and all the while managing to navigate the set through the tiny sliver of daylight between low fringe and high roll-necked jumper. Continue reading...

People with post-infectious diseases sometimes struggle to communicate the debilitating impact of their conditions. But a new technique can help them explain visuallyPost-infectious diseases such as long Covid and ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome) pose a puzzle to the medical establishment. Patients report debilitating symptoms such as extreme fatigue, shortness of breath or muscle pain, but often show normal results on routine medical checkups. And many sufferers do not look ill, leading some to question the severity of their disease. In the absence of diagnostic tools or an understanding of the pathophysiological processes, many sufferers find it difficult to share their experiences. They lack a verbal language that expresses the true impact of the illness.Now, researchers from Oxford University are using the technique of body mapping" to help patients better communicate the physical, cognitive and emotional dimensions of their illness to family, friends and health professionals. Continue reading...

WHO is critical in protecting US business interests', says CEO of firm that may see lean years if Trump carries out vowThe World Health Organization (WHO) could see lean years ahead if the US withdraws membership under the new Trump administration. Such a withdrawal, promised on the first day of Donald Trump's new administration, would in effect cut the multilateral agency's funding by one-fifth.The severe cut would be uncharted territory for the WHO, potentially curtailing public health works globally, pressuring the organization to attract private funding, and providing an opening for other countries to influence the organization. Other countries are not expected to make up the funding loss. Continue reading...

From a starter' of dishing out compliments to a dessert' of smashing laptops in rage rooms, scientists and authors share 15 portion-sized' ideas for a positivity boostDopamine has a reputation as the body's feelgood" hormone, but it's really more about motivation than about positive affect", says happiness researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky. This is the chemical that nudges you towards things you enjoy, helping you muster the effort required to attend a party you're on the fence about, then showering you with a sense of reward when you actually have a great time. Dopamine works with other neurotransmitters like serotonin to give you a sense of momentum: do one thing to give yourself a mood boost, and the cascading effects of that decision can help you break out of a rut and resuscitate your zest for life. January, with its clean slate, is the ideal time to rev this process up.Enter the concept of the dopamine menu: a fresh sheet of stimulating activities designed to lift your spirits: quick starters" that take relatively little time and effort to pull off; more substantial mains"; and subtle sides" or indulgent desserts". Continue reading...

Starship test sent orange-glowing shards streaking over northern Caribbean and forced airlines to divert flightsThe US Federal Aviation Administration and officials from the Turks and Caicos Islands have launched investigations into SpaceX's explosive Starship rocket test that sent debris streaking over the northern Caribbean and forced airlines to divert dozens of flights.There are no reports of public injury, and the FAA is working with SpaceX and appropriate authorities to confirm reports of public property damage on Turks and Caicos," said the FAA, which oversees private rocket launch activity. Continue reading...

A doorbell camera captured the moment a meteorite hit the front porch of a home in Canada Continue reading...

Sound was also recorded in footage of space rock hitting house entranceway, producing cloud of smoke and a crackleA doorbell camera on a Canadian home has captured rare video and sound of a meteorite striking Earth as it crashed into a couple's walkway.When Laura Kelly and her partner returned home after an evening walk, they were surprised to find their walkway littered with dust and strange debris, according to the Meteoritical Society, which posted the video with its report. Continue reading...

Donald Trump and SpaceX owner Elon Musk have ambitious plans in space. Are they shooting for the moon?As Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House next week with Elon Musk at his side, the pair are planning to write the next chapter in US spaceflight history with an ambitious agenda that includes the first human footprints on Mars.How many of their grandiose aspirations get cemented into official US space policy and what gets left on the launchpad remains to be seen. But analysts envision a lively few years from the partnership between Musk, the enthusiastic billionaire founder of SpaceX, and Trump, who exploited US achievements in space during his first term for some jingoistic flag-waving. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Scientists at UCL hope one-off dose of powerful hallucinogenic could help drinkers reduce intakeA powerful psychedelic that is used in healing ceremonies by Indigenous groups in the Amazon is being trialled as a pioneering approach to reduce problematic alcohol consumption.Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is the active ingredient in ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew that has been used for thousands of years by shamans in South America. Scientists based at University College London are testing whether a one-off dose of the drug could help hazardous drinkers who want to reduce their alcohol intake.The study is currently recruiting volunteers, who need to be regular drinkers aged 21 to 65 who do not have a formal diagnosis of alcohol disorder. Continue reading...

Thermal bath complex is latest discovery among ruins of Italian city destroyed by Vesuvius eruption in AD79A large and sophisticated thermal bath complex that was believed to have been used by its owner to woo well-heeled guests has been discovered among the ruins of ancient Pompeii.The baths were found during excavations of a home on Via di Nola in Regio IX, a wealthy district of the city before it was destroyed by the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Continue reading...