The big idea: are we about to discover a new force of nature?
The wealth of emerging evidence suggest that physics may be on the brink of something bigModern physics deals with some truly mind-boggling extremes of scale. Cosmology reveals the Earth as a tiny dot amid an observable universe that is a staggering 93bn light years across. Meanwhile, today ’s particle colliders are exploring a microcosmic world billions of times smaller than the smallest atom.These two extremes, the biggest and smallest distances probed by science, are separated by 47 orders of magnitude. That ’s one with 47 zeros after it, a number so ludicrously huge that it isn’t worth trying to get your head aro...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 15, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Harry Cliff Tags: Physics Particle physics Gravity Cern Space Books Science Culture Source Type: news
Is writing down my rage the secret to resolving it? | Emma Beddington
New research reveals that listing your grievances on a piece of paper, then throwing them away may make you less angry. So I gave it a try …A lifetime enveloped in a benign, insulating cloud of oestrogen left me ill-prepared to be this nakedly, shockingly angry as it ebbs away in perimenopause. It is occasionally exhilarating, but mainly awful, being furious about so many things: the government, contradictory dental advice, inaction on climate breakdown, whatever cat keeps defecating at my back door. I exist at an exhausting, irrational rolling simmer that periodically comes to a head with me inappropriately venting, rea...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 15, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Emma Beddington Tags: Health & wellbeing Psychology Mental health Source Type: news
Far Beyond the Pasturelands review – on the trail of the ‘Himalayan Viagra’
Documentary reveals the cost to Nepalese villagers of harvesting a supposed aphrodisiac that sells for more than gold in ChinaEvery year, thousands of Nepalese villagers make their way to the Himalayan foothills in search of a fungus calledyarsagumba. Known for its aphrodisiac properties, the elusive substance sells in China for a price higher than gold. Following Lalita, a young mother among the countless trekkers, this intimate documentary from Maude Plante-Husaruk and Maxime Lacoste-Lebuis paints a stirring portrait of a community exploited by modern commerce.Living in the largely agrarian village of Maikot, a wistful L...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 15, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Phuong Le Tags: Documentary films Nepal China Fungi Asia Pacific Biology Culture Society South and central Asia World news Source Type: news
Can you solve it? Art thou smarter than Shakespeare?
Don ’t make this a comedy of errorsToday ’s puzzles come from the quill of Rob Eastaway, the bard of brainteasers, whose latest bookMuch Ado About Numbersis a journey into Shakespeare ’s mathematical life and times.1. Hours and hoursContinue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 15, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Alex Bellos Tags: Mathematics Education Science Source Type: news
Starwatch: Lyrids meteor shower returns to the skies
Annual event promises between five and 20 meteors an hour with a few rare cases becoming much brighter ‘fireballs’The Lyrids are a meteor shower that derive from the tail of the comet Thatcher.Discovered by AE Thatcher in 1861, the comet is on a 422-year orbit of the sun and will not be returning to the inner solar system until 2283. Every year between 15 and 29 April, the Earth encounters the dust particles that it has left behind, with the peak of activity usually occurring on the night of 22 April, leading into the 23rd. The chart shows the view looking north-east from London at 22.00 BST on 22 April. The meteors ra...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 15, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Stuart Clark Tags: Astronomy Space Science Source Type: news
Once-in-a-generation lunar event to shed light on Stonehenge ’s links to the moon
Archaeologists and astrologers to study Wiltshire site ’s lesser understood connection to the moonThe rising and setting of the sun atStonehenge, especially during the summer and winter solstices, continues to evoke joy, fascination and religious devotion.Now a project has been launched to delve into the lesser understood links that may exist betweenthe monument and the moon during a once-in-a-generation lunar event.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 15, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Steven Morris Tags: Stonehenge UK news Archaeology Science The moon Astronomy Source Type: news
Maybe the NHS can ’t wait to get me off its list | Brief letters
NHS waiting list | Spineless politicians | Anger managementAt first I was pleasantly surprised when asked, in my NHS app, whether I still wanted to remain on a waiting list for a minor operation (Almost 10 million people in England could be on NHS waiting list, 3 April). I now wonder whether this was more about the government ’s method of reducing waiting lists rather than my medical need.Nick PageWinchester• I read your print headline “Invertebrate of the year: Celebrating the diverse and spineless creatures of the UK ” (13 April) and wondered why it wasn ’t in the politics section.Shareen Ca...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 14, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Guardian Staff Tags: NHS Health Psychology Source Type: news
Do you want to receive more love? First get to know your superego
It ’s the internal voice whose strict, unbending standards can make us miserable. But tuning in to it can change everythingSign up for Well Actually, a free weekly newsletter about health and wellnessWhen I first became her patient, I heard everything my therapist said as a criticism. Almost every word that came out of her mouth, I received as a telling off, a character assassination or a low mark. I thought to myself: “I’m paying this woman to help me and all she’s doing is criticising me! How rude!”Here ’s a made-up example that has a lot of truth in it: if I lost my mobile phone and described my feelings of ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 14, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Moya Sarner Tags: Health & wellbeing Life and style Society Psychology Source Type: news
World ’s top cosmologists convene to question conventional view of the universe
Meeting at London ’s Royal Society will scrutinise basic model first formulated in 1922 that universe is a vast, even expanse with no notable featuresIf you zoomed out on the universe, well beyond the level of planets, stars or galaxies, you would eventually see a vast, evenly speckled expanse with no notable features. At least, that has been the conventional view.The principle that everything looks the same everywhere is a fundamental pillar of the standard model of cosmology, which aims to explain the big bang and how the universe has evolved in the 13.7bn years since.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 14, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Hannah Devlin Science correspondent Tags: Space Science Research Education Higher education Source Type: news
The disease-busting hybrids that could bring back the majestic English elm
The tree all but vanished in the 1970s. Now, thanks to two amateur nature lovers, it may soon grace our landscapes againConstable painted them. Shakespeare wrote of them. And Francis Drake sailed the world in a ship made from them. English elms were a mainstay of England ’s landscape and culture – until they all but disappeared to Dutch elm disease in the 1970s.Since that devastation, when 25m elms were felled, enthusiasts and academics have searched for varieties resistant tothe fungus spread by Scolytus beetles that kills the trees.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 14, 2024 Category: Science Authors: James Tapper Tags: UK news Trees and forests Environment Science Source Type: news
Wafer-thin, stretchy and strong as steel: could ‘miracle’ material graphene finally transform our world?
The material, discovered in 2004, was meant to be revolutionary. But only now is the technology coming of ageTwenty years ago, scientists announced they had created a new miracle material that was going to transform our lives. They called itgraphene.Consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexa gonal pattern, it is one of the strongest materials ever made and, for good measure, it is a better conductor of electricity and heat than copper.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 13, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Robin McKie Science Editor Tags: Materials science Manufacturing sector Technology sector Technology startups Physics UK news Source Type: news
Dinosaur data: can the bones of the deep past help predict extinctions of the future?
Millions of years ago, animals adapted to become warm-blooded amid huge climactic changes. Now scientists hope these clues from the past could help us understand what lies aheadIn Chicago ’s Field Museum, behind a series of access-controlled doors, are about 1,500 dinosaur fossil specimens. The palaeobiologist Jasmina Wiemann walks straight past the bleached leg bones – some as big as her – neither does she glance at the fully intact spinal cord, stained red by iron oxides fill ing the spaces where there was once organic material. She only has eyes for the deep chocolate-brown fossils: these are the ones containing p...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 13, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Tiffany Cassidy Tags: Palaeontology Climate crisis Endangered species Biodiversity Environment Science US news Source Type: news
‘Smell is really important for social communication’: how technology is ruining our senses
Scientists say an overreliance on sight and sound is having a detrimental effect on people ’s wellbeing and that our devices should deliver a multisensory experience“Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothing yet.” So went the first line of audible dialogue in a feature film, 1927’sThe Jazz Singer. It was one of the first times that mass media had conveyed the sight and sound of a scene together, and the audience was enthralled.There have been improvements since: black and white has become colour, frame rates and resolutions have increased and sound quality has improved, but the media we consume still ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 13, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Ned Carter Miles Tags: Technology Health & wellbeing Science Psychology Advertising Media Society Smartphones Food Artificial intelligence (AI) Life and style Business Source Type: news
Bonobos not the peace-loving primates once thought, study reveals
Male-on-male aggression more frequent among bonobos than chimps, but aggression between males and females less commonBonobos are not quite the peace-loving primates they have long been considered, researchers say, after finding that males show more aggression towards each other than chimpanzees.Bonobos and chimpanzees are humans ’ closing living relatives. While chimpanzees are known to show aggression against each other – sometimes to the point of death – bonobos have long been thought to live more harmoniously, with no known killings. The difference has led to the theory that natural selection works against aggress...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 12, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Nicola Davis Science correspondent Tags: Animal behaviour Primatology Biology Science Animals Source Type: news
‘This isn’t how good scientific debate happens’: academics on culture of fear in gender medicine research
Cass review found professionals in the field are scared to discuss views amid risk of reputational damage and online abuseCritical thinking and open debate are pillars of scientific and medical research. Yet experienced professionals are increasingly scared to openly discuss their views on the treatment of children questioning their gender identity.This was the conclusion drawn by Hilary Cass in her review of gender identity services for children this week, which warned that a toxic debate had resulted in a culture of fear.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 12, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Hannah Devlin and Ian Sample Tags: Transgender NHS Medical research Children Young people Science Society UK news Source Type: news
