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Latest Science news, comment and analysis from the Guardian, the world’s leading liberal voice

Last feed update: Monday March 18th, 2024 05:40:06 PM

‘We actually don’t know much’: the scientists trying to close the knowledge gap in trans healthcare

Monday March 18th, 2024 04:02:38 PM Nicola Davis Science correspondent
Researchers are running trials on how hormone therapies affect trans people that will also benefit healthcare for the wider populationWhen Cameron Whitley was diagnosed with kidney failure seven years ago, the news came as a shock. But the situation was about to get worse. His doctor decided the diagnosis meant Whitley’s hormone therapy had to stop.As a transgender man, now 42, who had taken testosterone for 10 years, the impact was brutal. Continue reading…

‘Holy grail of shipwrecks’: recovery of 18th-century Spanish ship could begin in April

Monday March 18th, 2024 10:30:42 AM Luke Taylor in Bogotá
The San José, sunk in 1708, has been at the center of a dispute over who has rights to the wreck, including $17bn in bootySince the Colombian navy discovered the final resting place of the Spanish galleon San José in 2015, its location has remained a state secret, the wreck – and its precious cargo – left deep under the waters of the Caribbean.Efforts to conserve the ship and recover its precious cargo have been caught up in a complicated string of international legal disputes, with Colombia, Spain, Bolivian Indigenous groups and a US salvage company laying claim to the wreck, and the gold, silver and emeralds onboard thought to be worth as much as $17bn. Continue reading…

Star wars: Sri Lanka’s powerful astrologers split over auspicious dates

Monday March 18th, 2024 02:21:13 PM Staff and agencies in Colombo
Group employed by government divided for first time over best date for new year ritualsSri Lanka’s government-backed traditional astrologers have failed to unanimously agree on the best date for new year rituals, with squabbling seers warning of “disaster” and accusing rivals of misinterpreting the position of stars.Astrologers are hugely influential figures consulted by the island’s Buddhist and Hindu communities, and their advice for auspicious dates guides everything from marriages to business deals – and even national elections. Continue reading…

UK scientists working on breast cancer monitor fitted in bra

Monday March 18th, 2024 12:01:48 AM Alexandra Topping
Researchers at Nottingham Trent University hope device used at home will improve tracking of tumoursScientists are developing a device that fits inside a bra and could monitor whether a breast cancer tumour is growing.Researchers hope the device will provide a new non-invasive method of detecting tumour growth that patients can use “in the comfort of their own homes”. Continue reading…

UK researchers find way of diagnosing bowel cancer without biopsies

Monday March 18th, 2024 12:01:48 AM Jamie Grierson and agencies
PET scans can examine entire bowel before and during treatment, avoiding risks associated with taking tissue samplesResearchers in Glasgow have identified a new means of diagnosing and treating bowel cancer with imaging technology, avoiding the need for biopsies.Biopsies require an invasive procedure with a number of health risks, such as infection, and are limited in what they can capture within a patient’s bowel. Continue reading…

Starwatch: March equinox is upon us as sun crosses celestial equator

Monday March 18th, 2024 06:00:05 AM Stuart Clark
Length of day and night roughly equal as longer summer days draw nearThe sun crosses the celestial equator this week, meaning that the March equinox is upon us.The celestial equator is the projection of the Earth’s equator up into the sky. Because Earth rotates on a tilted axis, which always points in the same direction, our orientation to the sun changes throughout the year. When we are in the hemisphere tilted towards the sun, our parent star appears higher in the sky than the celestial equator and we experience summer with its longer days. Likewise, when the axis is pointed away, the sun never rises as high as the celestial equator and we experience winter with shorter days. Continue reading…

Fridge magnets can be cool aid to holiday memory recall, study finds

Monday March 18th, 2024 03:42:19 PM Linda Geddes
Some participants in Liverpool University survey said the travel mementoes were more important to them than photographsWhether holding up shopping lists or hastily scrawled messages, fridge magnets are highly functional holiday souvenirs. And a new study suggests these trinkets may also provide an important means of accessing happy – and not so happy – memories of past trips.Pervasive as souvenirs are, surprisingly little research has investigated what happens to them after people’s holidays have ended, and even less has focused on fridge magnets, even though we interact with them almost every day. Continue reading…

She beat a rare liver cancer – and now works with her father to find more cures

Saturday March 16th, 2024 03:00:07 PM Robin McKie Science Editor
Cancer scientist decides to study the tumour that once afflicted his small daughter – and now her work is adding to his project’s successElana Simon was 10 years old when she started to experience severe pains in her abdomen. For two years, puzzled doctors put forward diagnoses including lactose intolerance, Crohn’s disease and stress. It was not until 2008 that they pinpointed the real cause. Elana was suffering from fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC), a rare, usually lethal, form of liver cancer.“In a way, it was comforting to have a word for what was wrong with me after so much confusion about my condition,” Elana told the Observer. “Pre-diagnosis, my life was a mixture of discomfort and fear. Now I had something to focus on.” Continue reading…

Canada moves to protect coral reef that scientists say ‘shouldn’t exist’

Friday March 15th, 2024 01:09:43 PM Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Discovery was made after First Nations tipped off ecologists about groups of fish gathering in a fjord off British ColumbiaDeep in the hostile waters off Canada’s west coast, in a narrow channel surrounded by fjords, lies a coral reef that scientists believe “shouldn’t exist”. The reef is the northernmost ever discovered in the Pacific Ocean and offers researchers a new glimpse into the resilience – and unpredictability – of the deep-sea ecosystems.For generations, members of the Kitasoo Xai’xais and Heiltsuk First Nations, two communities off the Central Coast region of British Columbia, had noticed large groups of rockfish congregating in a fjord system. Continue reading…

‘Alarming’ rise in Americans with long Covid symptoms

Friday March 15th, 2024 11:00:34 AM Melody Schreiber
CDC data shows nearly 18m people could be living with long Covid even as health agency relaxes isolation recommendationsSome 6.8% of American adults are currently experiencing long Covid symptoms, according to a new survey from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealing an “alarming” increase in recent months even as the health agency relaxes Covid isolation recommendations, experts say.That means an estimated 17.6 million Americans could now be living with long Covid. Continue reading…

Covid vaccines cut risk of virus-related heart failure and blood clots, study finds

Tuesday March 12th, 2024 11:30:05 PM Ian Sample Science editor
Researchers say jabs substantially reduce for up to a year the chances of serious cardiovascular complicationsCovid vaccinations substantially reduce the risk of heart failure and potentially dangerous blood clots linked to the infection for up to a year, according to a large study.Researchers analysed health records from more than 20 million people across the UK, Spain and Estonia and found consistent evidence that the jabs protected against serious cardiovascular complications of the disease. Continue reading…

UK report reveals bias within medical tools and devices

Monday March 11th, 2024 01:00:29 PM Nicola Davis Science correspondent
Experts say action needed as report finds minority ethnic people, women and those from deprived backgrounds at risk of poorer healthcareMinority ethnic people, women and people from deprived communities are at risk of poorer healthcare because of biases within medical tools and devices, a report has revealed.Among other findings, the Equity in Medical Devices: Independent Review has raised concerns over devices that use artificial intelligence (AI), as well as those that measure oxygen levels. The team behind the review said urgent action was needed. Continue reading…

‘Hypervaccinated’ man reportedly received 217 Covid jabs without side effects

Wednesday March 6th, 2024 02:05:53 PM Kate Connolly in Berlin and agencies
German man, who said he had vaccines for ‘private reasons’, suspected of selling certificates to people who didn’t want jabA German man who voluntarily received 217 coronavirus jabs over 29 months showed “no signs” of having been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 and had not suffered from any vaccine-related side effects, according to a study published in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.The 62-year-old, from Magdeburg, Germany, whom doctors described as “hypervaccinated”, said he had had the large number of vaccines for “private reasons”, according to the researchers from University of Erlangen-Nuremberg who examined him. Continue reading…

Dismay as UK government halts cash for world-renowned Covid programme

Sunday March 3rd, 2024 08:00:06 AM Robin McKie
Despite its trials saving thousands during the pandemic, funding is being stopped for the groundbreaking UK Recovery programmeIt changed the treatment of Covid-19 patients across the globe, saved thousands of lives by pinpointing cheap, effective drugs during the pandemic, and earned Britain widespread praise from international groups of scientists.But now government support for the UK Recovery programme is to end. In a few weeks’ time, central financing for the programme will halt. The scheme will only be able to continue thanks to funding from a group of US-based philanthropists. Continue reading…

I feel for women misled over egg-freezing. If I’d believed doctors during my transition, my kids wouldn’t be here | Freddy McConnell

Saturday March 16th, 2024 07:00:00 AM Freddy McConnell
We all deserve better from healthcare providers who sell false promise to some, while shutting down options for others You can’t have missed the conversations about the rise of freezing eggs for non-medical or “social” reasons in recent years, which forms part of an explosion in the use of fertility treatments, all with the promise of giving more options to prospective parents. The starting point is often the question of whether someone, almost always a wealthy, straight, white woman, should freeze her eggs as insurance against her “biological clock”, career development and/or the risk of not finding a partner in time with whom to start a family.Having noticed the trend, I began to see that the same detail was missing from piece after piece: the statistical likelihood of these frozen eggs leading to live births. With notable exceptions, the focus is on affordability and the social factors that are causing so many more people to opt for this treatment, rather than discussion of what happens when someone actually uses the eggs to try to conceive. Frozen eggs are being marketed and spoken about as “fertility nest eggs” – even as more and more evidence about low success rates have emerged. Continue reading…

‘You don’t want to get better’: the outdated treatment of ME/CFS patients is a national scandal | George Monbiot

Tuesday March 12th, 2024 08:00:01 AM George Monbiot
From harmful ‘therapies’ to social services referrals, the notion that this illness is psychosomatic is having devastating effectsIt’s the greatest medical scandal of the 21st century. For decades, patients with ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome) have been told they can make themselves better by changing their attitudes. This devastating condition, which afflicts about 250,000 people in the UK, was psychologised by many doctors and scientists, adding to the burden of a terrible physiological illness.Long after this approach was debunked in scientific literature, clinicians who championed it have refused to let go. They continue to influence healthcare systems, governments and health insurers. And patients still suffer as a result. Continue reading…

Tech bros need to realise deepfake porn ruins lives – and the law has to catch up

Friday March 1st, 2024 09:18:22 AM Luba Kassova
Taylor Swift is just one of countless victims of deepfake videos. Firms feeding off this abuse should pay for the harm they causeImagine finding that someone has taken a picture of you from the internet and superimposed it on a sexually explicit image available online. Or that a video appears showing you having sex with someone you have never met.Imagine worrying that your children, partner, parents or colleagues might see this and believe it is really you. And that your frantic attempts to take it off social media keep failing, and the fake “you” keeps reappearing and multiplying. Imagine realising that these images could remain online for ever and discovering that no laws exist to prosecute the people who created it. Continue reading…

OpenAI’s new video generation tool could learn a lot from babies | John Naughton

Saturday February 24th, 2024 04:00:31 PM John Naughton
The footage put together by Sora looks swish, but closer examination reveals its doesn’t understand physical reality“First text, then images, now OpenAI has a model for generating videos,” screamed Mashable the other day. The makers of ChatGPT and Dall-E had just announced Sora, a text-to-video diffusion model. Cue excited commentary all over the web about what will doubtless become known as T2V, covering the usual spectrum – from “Does this mark the end of [insert threatened activity here]?” to “meh” and everything in between.Sora (the name is Japanese for “sky”) is not the first T2V tool, but it looks more sophisticated than earlier efforts like Meta’s Make-a-Video AI. It can turn a brief text description into a detailed, high-definition film clip up to a minute long. For example, the prompt “A cat waking up its sleeping owner, demanding breakfast. The owner tries to ignore the cat, but the cat tries new tactics, and finally, the owner pulls out his secret stash of treats from underneath the pillow to hold off the cat a little longer,” produces a slick video clip that would go viral on any social network. Continue reading…

A waterworld with a boiling ocean and the end of dark matter? The week in science – podcast

Thursday March 14th, 2024 05:00:12 AM Presented by Ian Sample with Hannah Devlin; produced by Madeleine Finlay; sound design by Tony Onuchukwu
Ian Sample and science correspondent Hannah Devlin discuss some of the science stories that have made headlines this week, from a new theory challenging the existence of dark matter to an alarming study about the possible impact of microplastics on our health and a glimpse of a ‘waterworld with a boiling ocean’ deep in space Continue reading…

Why do we lose our hair as we age, and what can we do about it? – podcast

Tuesday March 12th, 2024 05:00:57 AM Presented by Madeleine Finlay, with Rudi Zygadlo, produced by Madeleine Finlay and Joshan Chana, sound design by Joel Cox, the executive producer is Ellie Bury
For some people, going bald or experiencing thinning hair can have a significant impact on mental wellbeing and self confidence. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Rudi Zygadlo about how it affected him and what he eventually did about it, and to consultant dermatologist and hair specialist Dr Sharon Wong about what exactly is going on when our hair thins, which treatments are available to help, and what we can expect from new technologies in the pipelineRead Rudi Zygadlo’s description of his hair transplantSign up to the TechScape newsletter to read Alex Hern’s weekly look at how technology is shaping our lives Continue reading…

What’s behind the rapid rise of cancer in the under-50s? – podcast

Thursday March 7th, 2024 06:30:04 AM Presented by Ian Sample with Andrew Gregory, produced by Madeleine Finlay, sound design by Tony Onuchukwu, the executive producer is Ellie Bury
Ian Sample speaks to the Guardian’s health editor, Andrew Gregory, about the worrying global rise in cancers in under-50s, and hears from Yin Cao, an associate professor in surgery and medicine at Washington University in St Louis, who is part of a team conducting a huge study into why young people are developing bowel cancer at record rates Continue reading…

Younge writing on racism best since Baldwin

Friday March 15th, 2024 04:54:53 PM Guardian Staff
Racism in politics | A propulsion problem | Joy in education | Salford’s rugby winGary Younge’s article on the universal hypocrisy in relation to racism being expressed by both of our main political parties is the most honest and ruthlessly coruscating essay I’ve read since James Baldwin (In Britain’s degraded politics, fighting racism has become a cynical game, 15 March). It should be framed on the walls of every office used by journalists and politicians in the land.Jonathan CallanLondon• The propulsion of rockets is described as due to “flames and hot gases, which push against the ground and cause it to travel upwards” (The kids quiz, 9 March). Apart from the grammatical failure, which has the ground moving upwards, what happened to Newton’s laws? Have they been discarded as the work of a dead white male?John HallBristol Continue reading…

US and Japan push for ban on nuclear weapons in space with UN security council resolution

Tuesday March 19th, 2024 02:03:26 AM Guardian staff and agencies
UN chief António Guterres says risk of nuclear war has escalated and that ‘humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer’The US and Japan are sponsoring a UN security council resolution calling on all nations not to deploy or develop nuclear weapons in space, the US ambassador has announced.Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN security council meeting that “any placement of nuclear weapons into orbit around the Earth would be unprecedented, dangerous, and unacceptable.” Continue reading…

Scientists move step closer to making IVF eggs from skin cells

Friday March 8th, 2024 07:00:10 PM Ian Sample Science editor
Procedure could overcome common forms of infertility and help people have children who share their DNAScientists are a step closer to making IVF eggs from patients’ skin cells after adapting the procedure that created Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, more than two decades ago.The work raises the prospect of older women being able to have children who share their DNA, and to overcome common forms of infertility caused by a woman’s eggs becoming damaged by disease or cancer treatment. Continue reading…

Did you solve it? Lewis Carroll for insomniacs

Monday March 18th, 2024 04:57:25 PM Alex Bellos
The answers to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set these puzzles by Lewis Carroll, who as well as writing books like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was also a prolific puzzle setter.1. The Chelsea Pensioners Continue reading…

Can you solve it? Lewis Carroll for insomniacs

Monday March 18th, 2024 06:59:03 AM Alex Bellos
It’s not all about AliceUPDATE: Read the answers hereTodays puzzles are all penned by Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and appear in a delightful miscellany of his non-Alice scribblings, Lewis Carroll’s Guide for Insomniacs, curated by LC superfan Gyles Brandreth. They may be oldies, but they are goodies!1. The Chelsea Pensioners Continue reading…

Did you solve it? The word game at the cutting edge of computer science

Monday March 4th, 2024 04:45:34 PM Alex Bellos
The answer to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you three examples of a word puzzle that illuminates one of the smash hits of theoretical computer science. (To read about this result, the PCP theorem, please check out the original post.)In the puzzle, crossword-style clues each point to a vertical column. The answer to each clue is a three-letter word, made up from the three letters that the clue points to. Continue reading…

Can you solve it? The word game at the cutting edge of computer science

Monday March 4th, 2024 07:10:22 AM Alex Bellos
A crossword puzzle with a twistUPDATE: You can read the solutions hereToday’s puzzle illuminates one of the smash hits of theoretical computer science, a mind-boggling result that left even experts in the field gobsmacked.We’ll get to that result (the PCP theorem) later. But first, to the challenge! Continue reading…

SpaceX completes third Starship test flight lasting 50 minutes – video

Thursday March 14th, 2024 02:19:18 PM
SpaceX launched the third test flight of its Starship spacecraft, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, which aims to carry astronauts to the moon and, eventually, to Mars. It took off from SpaceX’s spaceport, named Starbase, on the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas, entering space several minutes later. After 50 minutes, it lost contact with the spacecraft and the live feed cut to the control room. SpaceX were never intending to recover the parts after take-off. Two previous attempts ended in the explosion of the spacecraft’s engine booster and the cruise vessel, which is designed to eventually carry up to 100 astronauts. The first attempt lasted four minutes and the second lasted eight. The company says frequent flight testing will provide valuable data that will help it design and develop a more robust rocketSpaceX launches third Starship test flight Continue reading…

One of world’s smallest fish found to make sounds that exceed 140 decibels – video

Tuesday February 27th, 2024 03:12:49 PM
One of the world’s smallest fish, measuring about the width of an adult human fingernail, can make a sound as loud as a gunshot, scientists have found. The male Danionella cerebrum, a fish of about 12mm found in the streams of Myanmar, produces sounds that exceed 140 decibels, according to a study published in the PNAS journal, equivalent to an ambulance siren or a pneumatic drillOne of world’s smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a gunshot Continue reading…

Ancient faces brought back to life at Scottish museum – video

Saturday February 17th, 2024 07:44:55 PM
A bronze age woman who suffered lower back pain 4,000 years ago and an iron age Pictish man who lived a life of hard labour 1,500 years ago are among our ancient ancestors who have been brought to life in dramatic facial reconstructions. Cutting-edge technology will enable visitors to Scotland’s new Perth Museum to come face to face with four individuals from our past in modern-day PerthshireAncient faces brought back to life at Scottish museum Continue reading…






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