After years in the police, Scott Walker became a ‘response consultant’, handling everything from abductions to piracy and cyber-attacks. The skills he used can help you get a pay rise, lower your rent, defuse a family crisis …Somewhere in Europe, a man is taken at gunpoint from his BMW. He is a successful businessman, worth an estimated €200m; from the burnt-out wreckage of his car, it’s clear this is a professional operation.In London, 48 hours later, Scott Walker is part of the team brought in to secure the man’s release. A hostage negotiator with more than a decade’s experience, Walker prepares himself for a long haul: it could be weeks before the kidnappers make contact with their demands. But the immediate negotiation is not with them – it’s with the hostage’s younger brother. Continue reading...

Castor and Pollux mark the heads of celestial siblings preparing to slip from view with the twilightThere is an absolutely beautiful cluster of celestial objects this week to look out for. The crescent moon will find itself close to the planets Venus and Mars, and the stars Castor and Pollux.The chart shows the view looking west from London on the evening of Tuesday, 23 May, at 22.00 BST. The constellation of Gemini, the twins, will be upright and preparing to sink below the horizon, disappearing from view along with the twilight. Venus and the moon will be in between the body of the twins, which are marked at the heads by the stars of Castor and Pollux. Mars will be sitting off to the left of the constellation, glowing with its characteristic ruddy light. In contrast, Venus and the moon will be shining bright white. Castor and Pollux will be yellowish and blueish respectively. Continue reading...

Darren Hawkes, garden designer and Samaritans helpline volunteer, has created a space full of empathy at the Chelsea Flower ShowDarren Hawkes knows exactly why he wanted to create a garden for Chelsea Flower Show that acknowledges life is full of fear and pain and loneliness: “When we are in despair, what’s common is, we all feel alone. We feel as if that despair is not a shared experience – it’s a personal one. And so, by putting the experience into three dimensions in a public space, there’s a chance it may remind someone that they are not alone. That there are other people who have experienced that.”Hawkes, an award-winning garden designer, gives up his free time to quietly confront this fact on a regular basis. He has lost friends to suicide and is a listening volunteer for the helpline of the suicide prevention charity, Samaritans, to whom he has dedicated his show garden. “It’s not a real garden. I wouldn’t create this garden for a Samaritans centre. But if, as a show garden, it helps to communicate some of the lived experiences of people who reach out and call Samaritans, that starts a dialogue.” Continue reading...

Called ‘humanity’s crew’, the four-person team comprises the first woman and the first person of color on a lunar assignmentAt a press conference on 5 July 1969, 11 days before the launch of Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins sat on stage in a plastic box with blowers making sure they did not inhale airborne germs from the sizeable gathering of journalists.Asked about the risk of getting stranded on the moon, Armstrong replied: “Well, that’s an unpleasant thing to think about.” Continue reading...

Footage captured from Cairns on the east coast to Normanton on the Gulf of Carpentaria shows growing fireball exploding with a loud boom

Research sheds light on how endotoxins play role in increasing risk of obesity and type 2 diabetesFragments of bacteria leaking into the body from the gut are damaging fat cells and driving weight gain, research suggests.Scientists at Nottingham Trent University have found that these microbe fragments, known as endotoxins, are able to enter the bloodstream and directly affect how well fat cells function. Continue reading...

Conquering diseases that appear among elderly people will eventually make life better for everyoneWhen members of the Hårga – Ari Aster’s Swedish cult in Midsommar – reach the age of 72, they are instructed to jump off a very high cliff. “They have reached the end of their life cycle,” the Hårga explain, Swedishly, to their dumbfounded American guests.As horror films go, it’s an unexpected twist – all the more so because it bucks what might be described as the genre’s most unrelenting theme, which is that the elderly are almost always villains, not victims. Throughout the long history of horror, the old have waited, jealously, to feast on the young, either in over-friendly cabals (Get Out, Rosemary’s Baby, Hereditary), or alone (X, Saw). All versions, perhaps, of horror’s longest-lived baddie: the vampire.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

The only mammals that fly are not affected by coronaviruses. Scientists are trying to work out whyWidely depicted as evil spirits or blood-sucking demons, bats have had a poor press over the years. No vampire film, from Dracula to Buffy, has been complete without an entrance of one of these harbingers of death.But these grim portrayals demean the bat. We have much to learn from them, insist researchers who now believe bats could be crucial in helping us cope with future pandemics. Continue reading...

AI can fight the climate crisis and fuel a renewable-energy revolution. It could also kill countless jobs or incite nuclear warThe last few months have been by far the most exciting of my 17 years working on artificial intelligence. Among many other advances, OpenAI’s ChatGPT – a type of AI known as a large language model – smashed records in January to become the fastest-growing consumer application of all time, achieving 100 million users in two months.No one knows for certain what’s going to happen next with AI. There’s too much going on, on too many fronts, behind too many closed doors. However, we do know that AI is now in the hands of the world, and, as a consequence, the world seems likely to be transformed.Michael Osborne is a professor of machine learning at the University of Oxford, and a co-founder of Mind Foundry Continue reading...

Experts predict US-approved fezolinetant can be a ‘blockbuster’ for thousands of women in the UKMenopause treatments will be revolutionised by a drug that acts directly on the brain to prevent hot flushes, leading doctors have predicted.Speaking after the US approved the first non-hormonal menopause drug, made by Astellas Pharma, experts said the treatment could be transformative for the hundreds of thousands of women in the UK for whom hormone replacement drugs (HRT) are not suitable. The drug, fezolinetant, was licensed in the US on 12 May and could be approved for use in the UK by the end of the year. Continue reading...

Researchers identify differences in bacteria that colonise the gut in adults living with obesityThe gut bacteria of a toddler can predict whether they will be overweight later in life, research suggests.The study, led by Gaël Toubon from the Université Sorbonne Paris, looked at the data from 512 infants who were part of a study that tracked the lives of 18,000 children born in France. Continue reading...

Prehistoric Planet’s intimate, moving CGI footage is revolutionising natural history – and it’s presented by a national treasure. We meet the creators of a unique TV seriesJurassic Park was released 30 years ago, but in those three decades our perception of dinosaurs has largely remained static. In the public consciousness, they were giant, scaly beasts with huge claws and teeth who spent their days chasing down victims and ripping them apart in brutal fashion. Think dinosaur and you will probably picture a primal, primitive force of unbelievable fury.And then along comes the new series of Prehistoric Planet (Apple TV+), which, in a single instant, undoes almost everything we thought we knew. The instant in question concerns the Hatzegopteryx: a vast, vicious-looking, giraffe-sized pterosaur. Had the Hatzegopteryx been depicted on screen at any point until now, it would undoubtedly have been to swoop down like a monster and gobble up its prey. Continue reading...

Wylam, Northumberland: Why would a rare mountain flower be found here? The answer lies in the soilThis lowland pastoral landscape around Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Close House Riverside reserve, on the north bank of the Tyne, is an unlikely place to find a mountain wild flower, the nationally scarce alpine pennycress. But in spring, an area of grassland about the size of a football pitch is enlivened by its blunt-ended white flower spikes, tinged mauve when they first open.Percy Thrower, whose TV gardening shows earned him celebrity status in the 1960s and 70s, would surely have had a theory as to why this montane member of the cabbage family thrives here. He often prefaced answers to botanical conundrums with the phrase “the answer lies in the soil”, and that indeed explains why Noccaea caerulescens is abundant on the reserve. This is calaminarian grassland, a rare habitat contaminated with centuries of accumulated heavy metal deposits, washed downriver from mine spoil tips in the high Pennines – arguably one of the happier outcomes of pollution, for this species at least. Continue reading...

PM sounds a more cautious note after calls from tech experts and business leaders for moratoriumThe UK will lead on limiting the dangers of artificial intelligence, Rishi Sunak has said, after calls from some tech experts and business leaders for a moratorium.Sunak said AI could bring benefits and prove transformative for society, but it had to be introduced “safely and securely with guard rails in place”. Continue reading...

My friend Keith Neal, who has died aged 84, taught biology at Manchester grammar school (MGS) for 23 years, turning it from an elite, esoteric A-level to one of the most popular subjects at GCSE.As head of department, and ardent environmentalist, he enthused his students through his knowledge and adventurous field trips. He was an internationalist, taking students to India in 1988 and 1993, and on a groundbreaking trip to China in the late 1990s. Continue reading...

Evidence suggests ancient Mesopotamians kissed and practice could be more culturally universal than previously thoughtHumanity’s earliest record of kissing dates back about 4,500 years in the ancient Middle East, 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to researchers.Scientists have highlighted evidence that suggests kissing was practised in some of the earliest Mesopotamian societies and documented in ancient texts from 2500BC that have been largely overlooked. Continue reading...

Limits on numbers at Paris summit mean some of those ‘most needing to be heard’ will not be in attendanceScientists and NGOs have accused the UN’s environment programme (Unep) of locking out those “most needing to be heard” from upcoming negotiations in Paris aimed at halting plastic waste.Last-minute restrictions to the numbers of NGOs attending what the head of Unep described as the “most important multilateral environmental deal” in a decade will exclude people from communities in developing countries harmed by dumping and burning of plastic waste as well as marginalised waste pickers, who are crucial to recycling, from fully participating, they said. Continue reading...

From self-cannibalism to spilling tomato sauce down my wedding dress, my nightmares are trying to keep me realJust what is the function of a recurring nightmare? Why am I forever doomed to be nude in different workplaces? Are these fantasies constructed to rehearse for the play of your life? Or are they, as I suspect, a way for your brain to chop down the tall poppy of your psyche?Maybe my brain worms are just trying to get me to keep it real. Continue reading...

There are now two impressive possible treatments for this form of dementia. But concerns remain over cost and potential side-effectsCould a new treatment developed by the US pharmaceutical company Lilley mean “the beginning of the end” of Alzheimer’s? Could we even cure the disease some day? These are the types of headlines and questions swirling around after news of a new drug, called donanemab, showed promising results in phase-3 trials at slowing down the decline in cognitive functions and reducing the deterioration in the ability to undertake daily tasks independently.Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 60-70% of cases. It is not a normal part of ageing, even though it largely affects those over 65. It’s a degenerative disease where symptoms worsen over years, starting with mild memory loss and moving towards the complete loss of ability to recognise loved ones and caregivers, confusion and disorientation between the past and present, and the inability to live independently. It can be heartbreaking for families to watch the deterioration of loved ones who almost become like a different person, with extreme mood and behavioural changes.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading...

Prehistoric hearths found near Madrid date back about 250,000 years, with nearby tools showing food tracesPrehistoric humans in Europe might have been sitting round campfires built to toast snacks as early as 250,000 years ago – 50,000 years earlier than originally thought, researchers have suggested.Human species have a long association with fire, with some sites suggesting its controlled use dates back more than 700,000 years in Africa and the Middle East and at least 400,000 years in Europe. Continue reading...

Indian drug company to make cheaper generic version of CAB-LA, potentially protecting millions of people in Africa from the virusAn affordable version of a groundbreaking HIV-prevention drug will be made in South Africa for the first time, potentially giving millions of people at risk of HIV infection in Africa access to a two-monthly jab that can almost eliminate their chances of contracting the virus.The Indian drug company Cipla confirmed that a generic version of the prophylaxis, long-acting cabotegravir (CAB-LA), would be manufactured at its plants in Benoni, near Johannesburg, or Durban. Continue reading...

A first-of-its-kind non-hormonal drug to treat hot flushes has been approved in the US. Targeting connections in the brain that change during menopause, the drug, called fezolinetant, could provide relief for those who aren’t able to take hormonal replacement therapy. Madeleine Finlay speaks to endocrinologist and menopause specialist Prof Annice Mukherjee to find out what we know about the mechanism that causes hot flushes, how this new drug works, and what it might mean for those experiencing menopause in the future. Continue reading...

Researchers seeking alternative to cutting or burning away affected cells turn to device used on verrucasA medical device that uses microwaves to destroy verrucas could provide a less invasive way of treating pre-cancers and cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), as well as genital warts.Almost all cervical cancers and most cancers of the vagina, vulva, penis and anus are caused by HPV. Certain variants of the virus cause genital warts, a sexually transmitted infection that affects 3-4% of British adults. Continue reading...

Scientists find antibodies for widespread Epstein-Barr virus can misfire and attach to protein in brain and spinal cordScientists have uncovered how a common childhood virus could trigger multiple sclerosis (MS), in findings that could pave the way for new treatments for the devastating condition.The research suggests that the body’s immune response to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a normally harmless infection, can misfire and mistakenly target a crucial protein in the brain and spinal cord. Continue reading...

Nestled in Arkansas, the Buddhist center is remote and summers are sweltering. I spent a week shadowing practitioners to learn whether it changed them in the ways they had hopedAni Wangmo and I are being tailgated. We’re in a white pickup truck, and the man behind us is driving a mid-size silver Pontiac. There’s real risk: deer and armadillo are splattered all over the narrow, cliffside Ozark road. If we need to stop suddenly, there’s nowhere for the Pontiac to swerve. The car will drive into us, the oncoming lane, or off the cliff.We’re on the six-hour grocery run that Wangmo makes twice a month for the practitioners who are in retreat at the Katog Rit’hröd Buddhist center in Parthenon, Arkansas. These practitioners cannot go into town: they’re immersed in a three-year, off-grid retreat to intensively practice and study Nyingma Tibetan Buddhism. Continue reading...

‘Digital twin’ of ship created by deep-sea mapping firm may help shed new light on 1912 sinkingThe Titanic has been depicted in unprecedented detail in the first full-sized digital scan of the wreck.The unique 3D view of the entire vessel, seen as if the water has been drained away, could reveal fresh clues about how she came to sink on her maiden voyage in 1912. The scans also preserve a “digital twin” of the ship, which is rapidly being destroyed by iron-eating bacteria, salt corrosion and deep ocean currents. Continue reading...

The ink blots have been used as a diagnostic tool for 100 years, but the making of new ones, every five years, has been a closely guarded secret – until nowFor images that have been reproduced for more than a century and looked at, quite intently, by millions of people, there is a great deal of secrecy surrounding the Rorschach ink blots. These famous cards – both intensely guarded and instantly recognisable – continue to be used for psychological diagnosis around the world. New copies are only printed every five years or so, and no one has ever been allowed to document the process. So when I asked the publisher recently if I might do so, I had not expected them to say yes. There were conditions, of course: the most perplexing of which was that if I were to document the printing of the Rorschach ink blots, I must do so without revealing any information about the printing of the Rorschach ink blots. It seemed a test as exquisitely elegant as the one for which the cards themselves are used.The ink blots are named after Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychologist who died so young that he only makes it halfway through his biography. One Sunday in late March 1922 he is taking his wife Olga to see Peer Gynt at the theatre and a week – five pages – later he’s dead. He had been born in Zürich 37 years earlier, the first of three children – two boys and a girl – to Philippine and Ulrich. His father was an extremely skilled artist and wrote a 100-page treatise titled Outline of a Theory of Form in which he considered many aspects of visual perception, asking: “Who among us has not often and with pleasure turned our eyes and imagination to the ever-changing shapes and movements of the clouds and the mist?”. Hermann became a gifted student and joined the elite academic Gymnasium in Schaffhausen, northern Switzerland. His skill as an artist was perhaps his defining characteristic, however, and led to his admiringly mocking nickname of Klex, a shortening of klexen or klecksen, which means something like “to daub”. Klex also means ink blot. Continue reading...

Here before the dinosaurs, plants now face extinction due to illegal trade and vanishing tropical forestsCycads are the most threatened group of plants in the world. These ancient plants date back about 280m years, before the age of the dinosaurs, and they look primeval, with a rugged chunky trunk rising into a crown of stiff feathery leaves.They are disappearing as their tropical forest habitats are rapidly vanishing, and they also face extinction from an illegal multimillion-pound global trade in wild cycads. The rarer they become, the more their value increases, with some individual specimens selling for millions of pounds each. Continue reading...

Decades-long study involving over 250,000 Swedish men establishes strong link to risk of fatal prostate cancerMen who put on 2st (12.7kg) before turning 30 are 27% more likely to die from prostate cancer in old age than those who maintain their teenage weight, early research suggests.A decades-long study into more than 250,000 Swedish men indicated there was a strong link between men gaining weight across their healthiest years and developing prostate cancer. Continue reading...

Paediatrician and geneticist determined to save the lives of children in countries where malaria is endemicMalaria kills more than half a million people every year, mostly children under the age of five in Africa. Saving the lives of those children was the lifelong mission of Dominic Kwiatkowski, who has died suddenly aged 69.Allied to that ambition was his vision that genetic sequencing – a technology that was beginning to be affordable on a large scale in the 2000s – could answer questions about why some children died and others survived. Continue reading...

Chinese and Australian researchers have identified that a dye used in medical imaging can block the toxic effects

We have the tools to prepare, but post-Covid fatigue and a lack of political will mean they aren’t being usedLast month a pet dog in Canada died of H5N1, also known as bird flu, after eating a wild goose. Worryingly this follows a pattern, with an increasing number of bird flu cases appearing in mammals who come into contact with an infected bird, dead or alive.When you see a wild bird such as a duck or seagull, think bird flu. Because it’s actually more likely than not they’re infected with the virus. And many species of wild birds are asymptomatic, meaning that they don’t show any symptoms. The risk of transmission to pets is low, but they can get sick from chewing or eating an infected bird, whether it’s dead or alive.Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading...

Two men believed to have been killed when building collapsed during early stages of AD79 volcanic eruptionThe remains of two people believed to have been killed by an earthquake that accompanied the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius have been found in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.The skeletons, thought to belong to two men in their mid-50s, were found during excavations at the Insula dei Casti Amanti, or Insula of the Chaste Lovers, an area of Pompeii made up of a cluster of homes and a bakery. Continue reading...

Eighty-six-minute movie starring 4,000-year-old Cornish stone billed as antithesis to flashy nature showsIt is a rock documentary but there is no pounding music, no terrible behaviour, no bombastic characters.Instead, the 86-minute film tells the slow but compelling story of 12 months in the life of a 4,000-year-old stone that stands sentinel in the Cornish landscape. Continue reading...

More than 40 leading scientists have resigned en masse from the editorial board of a top science journal in protest at what they describe as the ‘greed’ of the publisher. Ian Sample speaks to correspondent Hannah Devlin about the remarkably lucrative business of scientific publishing, hears from Prof Chris Chambers about what was behind the recent mass resignation, and finds out why researchers are demanding changeRead coverage of scientists’ resignation from journal Neuroimage here.Read Stephen Buranyi’s long read article about the business of scientific publishing here. Continue reading...

Ten-year science strategy of UK Health Security Agency will use data to combat infectious diseases faster and more effectivelyHealth officials in the UK have drawn up plans for a “genomics transformation” that aims to detect and deal with outbreaks of infectious diseases faster and more effectively in the light of the Covid pandemic.Information gleaned from the genetics of Covid proved crucial as the virus swept around the globe, revealing how the pathogen spread, evolved, and responded to a succession of vaccines and medicines developed to protect people. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you these six puzzles about succession with a lower case ‘s’. Here they are again with solutions.1. Nob job Continue reading...

It happened 8 billion lightyears away and was unprecedentedly bright and powerful. And I for one am pretty excited about itSomething pretty huge happened in space recently. Well, that’s not strictly true – to be more accurate, something truly gargantuan happened in space approximately 8 billion years ago, that we are only just finding out about now. Last Friday, scientists revealed the largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed: like a supernova, but more than 10 times brighter and more powerful than any other seen before. And its cause? A giant cloud of gas being sucked into a supermassive black hole.If you want people to be excited about something, it’s important to come up with a catchy name. So, taking a leaf out of Elon Musk’s book of baby names, scientists called it AT2021lwx. But I’m gonna call her Sue. Sue Pernova. (You’re welcome.) Continue reading...

Remember when WeWork would kill commercial real estate? Crypto would abolish banks? The metaverse would end meeting people in real life?In the field of artificial intelligence, doomerism is as natural as an echo. Every development in the field, or to be more precise every development that the public notices, immediately generates an apocalyptic reaction. The fear is natural enough; it comes partly from the lizard-brain part of us that resists whatever is new and strange, and partly from the movies, which have instructed us, for a century, that artificial intelligence will take the form of an angry god that wants to destroy all humanity.The recent public letter calling for a six-month ban on AI lab work will not have the slightest measurable effect on the development of artificial intelligence, it goes without saying. But it has changed the conversation: every discussion about artificial intelligence must begin with the possibility of total human extinction. It’s silly and, worse, it’s an alibi, a distraction from the real dangers technology presents. Continue reading...

Pondering what comes nextUPDATE: Read the solutions hereToday’s puzzles are about succession, with a lower case ‘s’.(Apols to readers hoping to find a discussion of the TV series. Although I have made an attempt at making one of the questions relevant.) Continue reading...

The latest film by the directors of Leviathan combines disorientating, brutal surgery closeups with doctors’ candid chats to powerful effectLucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel are the French documentary film-makers who in 2012 gave us Leviathan, an experimental and immersively strange account of life on a fishing trawler in the north Atlantic. In 2017 their Somniloquies was a hallucinatory, image-driven film about sleep-talking, while Caniba was about the notorious Japanese murderer and cannibal Issei Sagawa and the strange half-life of his later years, when he was immobilised by a cerebral infarction.Their new film does for the human body what Leviathan did for the alien world of the sea: an account of surgical and clinical procedures in a number of Paris hospitals, with extreme, disorientating closeups and some deeply disturbing images, including one mortuary scene of a dead body being dressed in the “civilian” clothes of the living. It gives us brutally candid images of operations on the eye, the brain and the penis, and takes us into the surreal, microsurgical inner-space of the body: you might find yourself thinking of the 60s sci-fi classic Fantastic Voyage with Raquel Welch and other miniaturised adventurers journeying through the body’s macrocosmos. The title is taken from Andreas Vesalius’s classic anatomical study of 1543, revolutionary in its day for its fiercely rationalist, materialist emphasis on examining what the body really is, but with bizarre, nonrational illustrations of animated corpses appearing to open themselves up, like Jesus and the sacred heart. Continue reading...

Scientists find link between levels of adult speech and infant myelin, which surrounds nerves and makes signals more efficientThe amount of adult speech children are exposed to in their early years may help to shape the structure of their brains, researchers say.Studies have previously suggested there are benefits to talking to young children, with research suggesting it can help improve their language processing and boost their vocabularies. Continue reading...

Phenomenon caused by sunlight reflecting off Earth was first explained by Leonardo da Vinci in 16th centuryThis weekend will be a good time to look for the earthshine on the moon’s unilluminated face. On 21 May, look to the west about 21.00 BST, near the time of sunset (but of course never look at the sun directly). The moon will be a thin crescent with less than 5% of its visible surface illuminated by the sun.As the sky darkens, the moon’s unilluminated portion will also glow faintly. This is the earthshine, caused by sunlight reflecting off our planet on to the moon. Seen from the moon, Earth is 50 times brighter than the full moon seen from Earth, meaning the lunar nearside never experiences a truly dark night. Earthshine was first explained by Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century. The phenomenon is also called the ashen glow, or the poetic “old moon in the arms of the new”. Continue reading...

Some organisms truck along slowly for aeons before suddenly surging into dominance – and something similar often happens with human inventions, too. But why? Continue reading...

Exclusive: IVF in UK ‘is the most successful and the safest it has ever been’, says Tim ChildA leading fertility expert has said the law should be overhauled so that rapid advancements in reproductive science do not stall.Prof Tim Child of the University of Oxford said IVF in the UK was “the most successful and the safest that it has ever been”, and noted that the chance of having a baby from a single embryo was rising and the likelihood of having multiple births dropping. Continue reading...

Thousands of Australian children live with dementia. Now recognition and research offer hope to the families raising children who will forgetIn many ways, Ronin and Ethan are typical young boys. They love Hot Wheels toy cars, Shaun the Sheep, rude noises and pizza nights. Nine-year-old Ethan dotes on the family pets. Ronin, seven, is always booting a soccer ball around the back yard. “They’re two absolutely lovable friendly kids, very affectionate and can be very loving when they’re happy and when things are going their way,” their mother, Teresa Lloyd, says.But Ronin and Ethan have dementia. When Ethan was two or three, his parents noticed his speech wasn’t developing properly. Now, at nine, he has the language skills of a toddler. He’s still walking unaided but this, Lloyd expects, will not last. He has no sense of personal safety and will dart out in front of a car without any awareness of the danger. He needs help with activities such as dressing and eating, the latter which requires constant supervision in case he doesn’t swallow properly and chokes. Continue reading...

She’s 10 years younger than me and lives on the other side of the world – but we forged the friendship of a lifetimeThere’s an assumption in life that by the time you’ve reached your more seasoned years, you’ve made all the close friends you need. Surely you’ve accumulated enough through school, university and work. But I’ve learned that close friends can be made at any age. In my case, one of my most meaningful, profound friendships was formed when I was in my mid-50s. It is a unique bond that crosses cultures, languages and continents.The first time I met Kyung-sook Shin I was unbelievably nervous. I was 56 and she was 10 years my junior. I was a New York literary agent and she the most famous author in Korea, comparable to JK Rowling. Her groundbreaking novel, Please Look After Mother, was all about a mother who sacrificed everything for her family only to be discarded by them. When it came out in Korea in 2009, it was the bestselling book that year. Continue reading...

Abusive, often violent tweets denying the climate emergency have become a barrage since Elon Musk acquired the platform, say UK expertsSome of the UK’s top scientists are struggling to deal with what they describe as a huge rise in abuse from climate crisis deniers on Twitter since the social media platform was taken over by Elon Musk last year.Since then, key figures who ensured “trusted” content was prioritised have been sacked, according to one scientist, and Twitter’s sustainability arm has vanished. At the same time several users with millions of followers who propagate false statements about the climate emergency, including Donald Trump and rightwing culture warrior Jordan Peterson, have had their accounts reinstated. Continue reading...

Anger at decision to axe the main task of the New Horizons spacecraft to probe the remote Kuiper beltIt may have reached the edge of the solar system and travelled more than 5 billion miles through space, but the New Horizons spacecraft is causing major ripples on Earth. A dispute has erupted between scientists and US space officials in the wake of Nasa’s decision to stop funding next year for the vessel’s main mission.The move was described as “misguided and unfortunate” by Alan Stern, New Horizons’s principal investigator. Continue reading...

More than ever, the relationship between our two worlds has been disrupted, says the historian. If we don’t mend our ways, will we face even deadlier threats than Covid, Sars and Mpox?In March 2021, the 13th month of the Covid confinement, the peepers, in their vast multitudes, sang out again. Down in the swampy wetlands below our house in Hudson Valley, New York, millions of Pseudacris crucifer (“cross-bearing false locusts” but actually minute frogs) puffed up their air sacs and warbled for a mate. That’s spring for you. The peepers are so tiny – an inch or so long – that you’ll never see one, no matter how carefully you creep up on them. Their blown-out song bags are nearly as big as the rest of them; it’s all they are: innocently inflated peeps of expectation.They are not alone. In recent years, the soprano peepers have been accompanied by a bass rhythm section – wood frogs, Lithobates sylvaticus, a tattoo of deep quacking, punctuated by raspy burps. They and the peepers survive bitter winters by means of antifreeze cryoprotectants stored within their bodies. When ice crystals begin to form on their skins, their livers flood the bloodstream with glucose, sending vital organs like the heart, its beating paused, into a dormant but protected state. Seventy per cent of the frogs’ body water can then freeze without compromising the organs that will magically reawaken in the spring. Continue reading...