Loopholes in proposed post-Brexit laws could allow preventive use to continue, raising risk of resistance, says coalition of groupsProposed laws to curb antibiotic use on UK farms contain loopholes that could undermine the fight against deadly drug-resistant bacteria, campaigners say, adding that they were drafted after closed-door meetings with industry.The government published the draft legislation, designed to replace EU rules post-Brexit, after consultations with pharmaceutical, veterinary medicine and farming lobby groups, according to freedom of information requests filed by the investigative journalism site DeSmog. Continue reading...

Cancer Research UK says melanoma cases could soar' by 50% over next 20 years and warns against sunburnThe number of people in the UK being diagnosed with skin cancer has hit a record high with a sharp rise among over-55s.Melanoma cases across all age groups have reached 17,500 a year in the UK, the highest since records began, according to Cancer Research UK. Continue reading...

Expected return also greeted with dismay at UK's decision to avoid being a net contributor to EU's flagship programmeScientists including the physicist Brian Cox have reacted with a mixture of caution, anger and relief that the UK appears set to rejoin the EU's flagship 85bn Horizon science research programme after a protracted Brexit row.Sources indicate that an announcement could come in days, possibly next week when Rishi Sunak is scheduled to meet the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, at a Nato summit. Continue reading...

Next generation cells surpass limits of today's cells and will accelerate rollout of cheaper, more efficient solar powerSolar power cells have raced past the key milestone of 30% energy efficiency, after innovations by multiple research groups around the world. The feat makes this a revolutionary" year, according to one expert, and could accelerate the rollout of solar power.Today's solar panels use silicon-based cells but are rapidly approaching their maximum conversion of sunlight to electricity of 29%. At the same time, the installation rate of solar power needs to increase tenfold in order to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists. Continue reading...

Sapiens author tells Geneva summit proliferation of fake people on social media could lead to collapse in democracyThe creators of AI bots that masquerade as people should face harsh criminal sentences comparable to those who trade in counterfeit currency, the Israeli historian and author Yuval Noah Harari has said.He also called for sanctions, including prison sentences, to apply to tech company executives who fail to guard against fake profiles on their social media platforms. Continue reading...

Discovery of more than 800 artefacts includes some of largest early prehistoric stone tools in BritainResearchers have discovered some of the largest early prehistoric stone tools in Britain, including a foot-long handaxe almost too big to be handled.The excavations, which took place in Kent, revealed prehistoric artefacts in deep ice age sediments preserved on a hillside above Medway Valley. Continue reading...

Professor close to research TV presenter is involved in says participants can help themselves as well scienceMore people with Alzheimer's are needed to join groundbreaking drug trials similar to the one that the TV presenter Fiona Phillips is taking part in, a professor close to the research has urged.People with dementia who take part in clinical trials tend to have better outcomes regardless of whether the medication they are administered works, according to a professor in University College London's dementia research centre, which is running the miridesap trial that Phillips is participating in. Continue reading...

Ai-da, Desdemona, Nadine and Geminoid join world's largest gathering of humanoids to promote AI as force for goodGrace is a nursing assistant, Ai-da a contemporary artist, Desdemona a purple-haired rock singer and Nadine is on hand for companionship and conversation.They are all at the world's largest gathering of humanoid robots, which is under way at the United Nations AI for Good global summit in Geneva. Continue reading...

Ian Sample talks to Dr David Furman, an expert on inflammation and ageing at Stanford University. He explains how chronic inflammation is affecting our health and how lifestyle choices can help us fight it. Continue reading...

Researchers find physically active short sleepers in their 50s and 60s suffer cognitive decline as fast as those who do less exerciseMiddle-aged people not getting enough sleep are less likely to see the benefits of exercise when it comes to protecting against a decline in skills such as memory and thinking, scientists have said.Researchers from University College London (UCL) found that those in their 50s and 60s who performed regular physical activities but slept less than six hours a night had a faster decline in these skills overall. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Women urged to study symptoms and be as vigilant as they are for breast cancer

Talks on returning as an associate member after Brexit row are close to agreement, say diplomatic sourcesThe UK is on the brink of doing a deal to return to the EU's 85bn science research programme Horizon Europe.Diplomatic sources say negotiations to become an associate member will continue over the weekend and the two sides are close to agreement after three months of talks, largely over the cost of re-entry. Continue reading...

Wrought iron process that drove UK success was appropriated from black metallurgists, records suggestAn innovation that propelled Britain to become the world's leading iron exporter during the Industrial Revolution was appropriated from an 18th-century Jamaican foundry, historical records suggest.The Cort process, which allowed wrought iron to be mass-produced from scrap iron for the first time, has long been attributed to the British financier turned ironmaster Henry Cort. It helped launch Britain as an economic superpower and transformed the face of the country with iron palaces", including Crystal Palace, Kew Gardens' Temperate House and the arches at St Pancras train station. Continue reading...

Up to 40% of the US population may have aviophobia. Is it possible to conquer it - and how?Why don't you just take a Xanax?"That's what most people suggest when I tell them I'm afraid of flying. Continue reading...

Monogamous birds switch partners for reasons similar to human breakups, scientists sayAffairs or lengthy spells apart commonly spell divorce for human couples - but it seems similar factors play a role in breakups among birds.It is thought more than 90% of bird species generally have a single mate over at least one breeding season, if not longer. However, some monogamous birds switch to a different partner for a subsequent breeding season despite their original mate remaining alive - a behaviour labelled divorce". Continue reading...

Better farming techniques across the world could lead to storage of 31 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide a year, data showsMarginal improvements to agricultural soils around the world would store enough carbon to keep the world within 1.5C of global heating, new research suggests.Farming techniques that improve long-term fertility and yields can also help to store more carbon in soils but are often ignored in favour of intensive techniques using large amounts of artificial fertiliser, much of it wasted, that can increase greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading...

We are not helpless: we need to do big things quickly, though, to halt the disturbance of nature. And I fear that's not happening

Scientists in Australia solve puzzle of sole egg left in museum and identify new deep-sea species with unique ridged egg caseOff the north-western coast of Australia, near the remote coral atolls of Rowley Shoals, ghost catsharks are slinking through the dim water and searching for bushy colonies of corals growing between 400 and 500 metres (1,300-1,600ft) down.This is where the elusive sharks lay their egg cases and leave them hanging like Christmas tree ornaments. Continue reading...

The Summer Science Exhibition shows the enduring appeal of the prehistoric

As the Royal Society's Summer Science exhibition opens we ask four experts for their predictions

Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian's energy correspondent, Jillian Ambrose, about how offshore windfarms are generating record profits for the crown estate, and why King Charles has asked for the money to be used for the wider public good. She also hears from economist Guy Standing about how the seabed became a source of income for the crown and what it means for our view of the oceans as commons'Read more of Jillian Ambrose's reporting on the crown estate here Continue reading...

Shares close down 8% on concerns that new lung cancer drug may not be as successful as hopedNearly 14bn has been wiped off the stock market value of AstraZeneca over concerns that a new lung cancer drug may not be as successful as had been hoped.Shares in the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company closed down 8% on Monday after it published the first results from its phase 3 trial for datopotamab deruxtecan, making it the biggest faller among FTSE 100 companies. Continue reading...

Events appear to unfold five times slower when universe was a tenth of its present age, in effect predicted by EinsteinAstronomers have watched the distant universe running in slow motion, marking the first time that the weird effect predicted by Einstein more than a century ago has been observed in the early cosmos.The scientists found that events appeared to unfold five times slower when the universe was a mere 1bn years old, or about a tenth of its present age, because of the way the expansion of the universe stretches time. Continue reading...

Rising temperatures in north Atlantic and drop in Antarctic sea ice prompt fears of widespread damage from extreme weatherVery unusual", worrying", terrifying", and bonkers"; the reactions of veteran scientists to the sharp increase in north Atlantic surface temperatures over the past three months raises the question of whether the world's climate has entered a more erratic and dangerous phase with the onset of an El Nino event on top of human-made global heating.Since April, the warming appears to have entered a new trajectory. Meanwhile the area of global sea ice has dropped by more than 1 million sq km below the previous low. Continue reading...

Linmere site has more monumental pits in a single area than anywhere else in England and WalesA prehistoric site with as many as 25 monumental pits has been discovered in Bedfordshire to the astonishment of archaeologists.Found in Linmere, they date from the Mesolithic period, 12,000 to 6,000 years ago, a time from which few clues into the lives of our hunter-gatherer ancestors survive. Continue reading...

Planet's cloud tops will be reflecting so much light it may cast shadows in dark viewing locationsVenus has been dominating the evening sky for weeks but only now does it reach its brightest. On Friday 7 July, the planet's cloud tops will be reflecting so much sunlight that from a perfectly dark location, it may even cast shadows.The chart shows the view looking west from London at 21.30BST on 7 July. Venus will be low but unmistakable in the gathering twilight. No stars will be visible at this time, but the sun will have set. This is a last hurrah for the planet because as the month progresses, it will drop lower and lower into the dusk sky, becoming more difficult to see. Venus is currently setting about one and three quarter hours after the sun but by the end of the month, the pair will be dipping below the horizon at approximately the same time. Hence, Venus will be lost from the evening sky as it passes between Earth and the sun. It will then reappear as a glorious morning object, beginning mid-August. Continue reading...

The writer's scripts for a TV series about the nurse were among those recovered from her old computer by the British LibraryHad it been made, the television drama would have begun with a middle-aged Mary Seacole, the British-Jamaican woman who nurses hundreds of British soldiers during the Crimean war, introducing herself to staff at the British military hospital at Scutari, near Istanbul, in 1855. Among them is Florence Nightingale, who briskly asks Seacole what she wants. This, at least, is the way the late author Andrea Levy planned to start to tell the extraordinary life story of Seacole in a series that never happened.Digital forensics work at the British Library now shows just how Levy, best known for her prizewinning book Small Island, wanted to turn the 1857 memoir of the famous wartime nurse into a compelling TV drama. Her revisions and edits of this 2012 screenplay, alongside other unpublished projects, have been recovered by archivists from defunct computer files. Continue reading...

We are slowly beginning to understand how our immune systems work, which will help us prevent allergies - but more research is desperately neededIf it seems as though everyone around you has been sneezing, coughing and wheezing more often this summer, you're not imagining things. Allergies are both becoming more common and getting worse. In some ways, this is not news. Respiratory allergy, asthma, eczema and food allergy rates have all been ticking upward for at least the past 50 years. Currently, approximately 30-40% of the global population has at least one allergic condition.Industrialisation, urbanisation, changing diets, overuse of antibiotics and the climate crisis - with its warming temperatures, increased flooding and wildfires - are all exacerbating the difficulties our immune systems face as they are exposed to more and more things. So recently, if you've felt like your body is becoming more and more irritated by the world around it, you're probably correct. In essence, our immune cells are being overwhelmed by modern life - more pollen in the air from both native and invasive plants; all the chemicals that we use in products, from detergents to shampoos; particulate matter from the fuels we burn. Even our companion animals - all the dogs, cats and birds that live inside our homes - are developing allergies. All of our immune systems are struggling to keep up with the changes we've been making over the past 200 years.Theresa MacPhail is a medical anthropologist and author of Allergic: How Our Immune System Reacts to a Changing World Continue reading...

Historians hope to find remains of animal from one of Britain's Victorian travelling menageriesThey are more used to excavating prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon sites, but archaeologists are now embarking on an extraordinary hunt for the fabled burial site of a 19th-century elephant - in south Gloucestershire.This was a famous beast" that drew crowds as part of a travelling menagerie that toured the length and breadth of Britain. It is thought to be the mighty mammal identified as Nancy in contemporary reports, which praised her considerable intelligence" and ability to achieve many astonishing feats". According to local legend, she died in 1891 after escaping and chewing on poisonous yew leaves, and she was buried somewhere in the town of Kingswood. Continue reading...

I was in denial about climate action - until I realised that you might just have to despair to care...Have you ever felt, Climate breakdown, argh, oh shite"? And then felt, But what am I supposed to do about it?" And then spent an hour listlessly researching electric cars, before getting overwhelmed by the whole extinction-level endeavour and doing sweet FA?My new film, My Extinction, charts my transformation from self-absorbed, guilty, inactive dad to self-absorbed, guilty, slightly less inactive dad. That is, it shows how a journey from total inaction to climate action turned out not to be as radically transformative as I might have supposed. And I mean that in a positive sense. Continue reading...

I was in denial about climate action - until I realised that you might just have to despair to care...Have you ever felt, Climate breakdown, argh, oh shite"? And then felt, But what am I supposed to do about it?" And then spent an hour listlessly researching electric cars, before getting overwhelmed by the whole extinction-level endeavour and doing sweet FA?My new film, My Extinction, charts my transformation from self-absorbed, guilty, inactive dad to self-absorbed, guilty, slightly less inactive dad. That is, it shows how a journey from total inaction to climate action turned out not to be as radically transformative as I might have supposed. And I mean that in a positive sense. Continue reading...

It's no wonder 30,000 women are awaiting a cream that claims to make skin actually youngerThat the launch of a - purportedly - rejuvenating moisturiser is now considered national news is, you have to admit, a kind of progress.Well within living memory, face cream manufacturers would have found coverage of their triumphs hidden away, if they made it out of women's magazines, somewhere within the lifestyle pages. And even there someone might ridicule the more absurd claims. Or some feminist muscle memory might respond adversely to the expectation that women should fall upon anything claimed to alleviate signs of non-youth, a project that Susan Sontag described in 1972 as women's passionate, corrupting effort to defeat nature: to maintain an ideal, static appearance against the progress of age". Continue reading...

European Space Agency mission launches on SpaceX rocket from Florida to shed light on dark energy and dark matterA European-built orbital satellite was launched into space on Saturday from Florida on a mission to shed new light on dark energy and dark matter, the mysterious cosmic forces scientists say account for 95% of the known universe.The Euclid telescope, named for the ancient Greek mathematician known as the father of geometry", was carried in the cargo bay of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which blasted off about 11am EDT (1500 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force station. A live stream of the liftoff was shown on Nasa TV. Continue reading...

A rocket carrying the European Space Agency's Euclid telescope, named after the Greek mathematician, has taken off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The launch was broadcast live via Nasa. Euclid is being sent into orbit to help scientists study dark matter and dark energy, which are believed to account for 95% of the known universe. The mission is expected to last at least six years

Big tech now has even more to answer for. But salvation could come from an unlikely sourceIn The Beginning Was The Internet, which was first switched on in January 1983 and designed from the outset as a platform for what became known as permissionless innovation". If you had a good idea that could be implemented using the network - and were smart enough to write the software to make it work - then the internet would do it for you, no questions asked.In the early 1990s, the physicist Tim Berners-Lee used it as the foundation on which to build a new platform for permissionless innovation called the world wide web". The non-technical world discovered this new platform in 1993 and spent the next 30 years using it as the foundation on which to build lots of new things - online shopping, social media, Amazon, Google, blogging etc, etc. The web also enabled Wikipedia, an improbable project to create an encyclopedia that anyone, but anyone, could contribute to and edit, and which is now one of the wonders of the networked world. Continue reading...

A recent breakthrough in the race to create synthetic' embryos has sparked criticism. But the findings could be valuable in understanding miscarriages and genetic disordersThe news on 14 June that scientists had made synthetic human embryos" caused widespread surprise and alarm. Sounds scary, right? Perhaps even, as an editorial in the Guardian suggested, like playing God" and paving the way towards a dystopian brave new world".The reality is different. For one thing, calling these synthetic embryos" is rather misleading, even prejudicial - most scientists prefer the term embryo models", and they are made from ordinary human cells. And they are not new - the earliest ones were made years ago, although the scientists behind the latest work say they have been able to grow them for longer than before. What's more, these embryo models are not being created out of Frankenstein-like hubris just to see if it's possible, but could offer valuable new insights into embryology, disease and pregnancy. None has the potential to grow into a human being, nor is there any reason why scientists would want them to. Continue reading...

European Space Agency's 1bn probe will travel 1m miles from Earth to shed light on dark universeFinal preparations are under way to launch a space telescope that aims to produce the largest, most accurate 3D map of the cosmos and unravel the dark forces that shape it.The European Space Agency's 1bn (862m) Euclid probe will observe more than a third of the sky and billions of galaxies to shed light on the mysterious dark matter and dark energy that together account for 95% of the universe. Continue reading...

New laws needed to stop genetic discrimination after report finds people are concerned their insurance will ask for results when issuing policies

Flight is milestone for space tourism venture founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, after years of setbacksSir Richard Branson officially entered the billionaire space tourism race on Thursday when his Virgin Galactic rocket plane, Unity, reached an altitude of about 53 miles.Two Italian air force colonels and an aerospace engineer from the National Research Council of Italy joined a Virgin Galactic instructor and the plane's two pilots on the 90-minute suborbital ride, which was streamed around the world. Continue reading...

Will artificial intelligence destroy humanity? That remains to be seen. For now, gen up on the dangers and delights with this selection of moviesForget the more recent TV show, which ended up so frustratingly opaque as to render it pointless. The most fun version of Westworld is Michael Crichton's original movie. A robot cowboy comes to life and goes nuts in a theme park. What more could anyone need? Continue reading...

The E numbers in food make bread softer and ice-cream silkier. But there is growing concern about how they might affect our microbiomeAs if excess salt, fat and several types of sugar weren't bad enough, the ingredient lists of much ultra-processed food often end with a befuddling number of additives. Either written as E numbers or given their full chemical names, this information is unsettlingly opaque to non-experts, prompting many of us to just refer to them derogatively as chemicals", even though, technically, everything is made of chemicals.One category of these additives - emulsifiers - has hovered below the radar for many years. But as scientific understanding of the gut microbiome has grown, they have emerged as potential culprits in the modern western diet's attack on gut health. And, as we now understand, gut health means general health because it governs everything from mood and metabolism to inflammation and immune response. Continue reading...

A science writer charts the monumental impact of having children from every angleMotherhood changes a person. We all know this. Yet in so-called Weird countries (western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic) there is very little in the way of ritual to acknowledge this rite of passage, this fundamental transformation. How can this be, Lucy Jones asks, when it is a transition that involves a whole spectrum of emotional and existential ruptures"?Unlike adolescence, matrescence" is scarcely marked. Instead, we are expected to get on with it, sublimate all our needs to our new baby, and weather this most fundamental of human shifts without making too much of a fuss. We don't properly recognise the psychological and physiological significance of becoming a mother: how it affects the brain, the endocrine system, cognition, immunity, the psyche, the microbiome, the sense of self". Continue reading...

Ian Sample speaks to the cosmologist Dr Andrew Pontzen about the European Space Agency's Euclid mission, which hopes to uncover more about two of the universe's most baffling components: dark energy and dark matter. Pontzen explains what the probe will be looking for and how its findings will contribute to our understanding of the structure and evolution of the cosmosClips: BBC, CBSRead more coverage of the Euclid mission here. Continue reading...

Sound comes from the merging of supermassive black holes across the universe, according to scientistsAstronomers have detected a rumbling cosmic bass note" of gravitational waves thought to be produced by the slow-motion mergers of supermassive black holes across the universe.The observations are the first detections of low-frequency ripples in the fabric of spacetime and promise to open a new window on the monster black holes lying at the centres of galaxies. Continue reading...

The largest study of its kind may prove a link between vitamin D levels and the risk of cardiovascular diseaseVitamin D supplements may cut the risk of serious cardiovascular events such as heart attacks in older people, according to the largest study of its kind.Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the main causes of death globally. The number of cardiovascular events is predicted to surge as populations continue to age and chronic diseases become more common. Continue reading...

Discovery could pave way for new treatments for condition that affects 2.9m people worldwideResearchers have discovered a genetic variant that appears to influence the speed at which multiple sclerosis (MS) progresses, potentially paving the way for new treatments.According to the MS International Federation, about 2.9 million people worldwide have MS, a condition in which the insulating coating of the nerves in the brain and spinal cord is damaged by the immune system. The nerve fibres themselves can also become damaged. Continue reading...

Scientists in India believe they can explain why the region has less gravitational pullSomewhere roughly in the middle of the Indian Ocean is the deepest dent in Earth's gravitational field - the place where Earth's gravitational pull is the weakest. That's because there is less mass under that spot on our planet - but why?Many possible explanations have been put forward, but proving any of the theories has turned out to be tricky. Now Debanjan Pal and Attreyee Ghosh, of the Centre for Earth Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, India, think they have the answer. They reconstructed the last 140m years of plate tectonic movements and the stirring in the underlying mantle that accompanied the rearrangement of Earth's crustal jigsaw. Continue reading...

US space agency plans to send Americans to the moon by 2025, including the first women and person of colorUS space agency Nasa has ambitions to mine resources on the moon in the next decade, with the goal of excavating the soil there by 2032.Nasa plans to send Americans back to the moon by 2025 for its Artemis mission, including the first women and person of color, the first humans to land on the moon since Nasa's Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972. Continue reading...

Discovery means targeted solutions can be directed to avian flu viruses sooner to prevent spillover into humans, say scientistsScientists have discovered that a gene present in humans is preventing most avian flu viruses moving from birds to people. The gene is present in all humans and can be found in the lungs and upper respiratory tract, where flu viruses replicate. It was already known to scientists, but the gene's antiviral abilities are a new discovery.A six-year investigative study led by the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research found that the BTN3A3 gene is a powerful barrier against most avian flu viruses. Continue reading...

Social and economic upheaval since the pandemic has resulted in many more families strugglingThe reasons for increased levels of pupil absence in England are multiple and complex. Some were an issue before the Covid pandemic closed schools and disrupted the education of millions, but all have become more acute since, affecting huge numbers of pupils and their families. They include: Continue reading...