Starwatch: the crescent moon and Jupiter in beautiful conjunction
From London the pair will be best seen setting in a fully dark sky on 13 MarchThere is a beautiful conjunction this week between the crescent moon and Jupiter.The chart shows the view looking west from London at 21:00 GMT on 13 March. By this time the pair will appear in a fully dark sky, but will be setting. Jupiter is so bright, however, that it will be easily visible before this time, as will the moon, shining through the twilight.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 11, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Stuart Clark Tags: Science Astronomy Space The moon Jupiter Source Type: news
Deep sea exploration: what ’s it like to take a trip on a submersible?
Submersibles allow us to witness the wonders of the depths of our planet like nothing else. But after the OceanGate disaster, how safe are they? Cal Flyn goes aboard …When we climb on board the ship, the submersible is waiting for us on deck. It is sleek and gleaming and slightly comic, like a tiny spaceship. It has a banana-yellow deck and a huge,Jetsons-style cockpit contained within a transparent bubble: an acrylic globe that is perfectly clear and spherical, temporarily shrouded in a thick grey cover to protect the interior from super-heating in the Bahamian sun.It is at once impossibly futuristic and yet intriguingl...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 10, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Cal Flyn Tags: Exploration Oceans Environment Science Source Type: news
How an epic climb lifted one woman out of life ’s lowest point
In emotional pain, Jessica Hepburn decided to climb to the top of the world and listen to every single available episode of Desert Island DiscsIt is hard for Jessica Hepburn to pinpoint the exact moment she decided to climb to the top of the world as well as to listen to every single available episode ofDesert Island Discs.“They’ve become so inextricably linked in my mind,” says the author, adventurer and self-described “unlikely athlete” who, in 2022, at the age of 51, successfully summited Mount Everest.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 10, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Donna Ferguson Tags: Life and style Psychology Science Health & wellbeing Desert Island Discs Source Type: news
Controversial new theory of gravity rules out need for dark matter
Exclusive: Paper by UCL professor says ‘wobbly’ space-time could instead explain expansion of universe and galactic rotationDark matter is supposed to account for 85% of the mass in the universe, according to conventional scientific wisdom. But proponents of a radical new theory of gravity, in whichspace-time is “wobbly”, say their approach could render the elusive substance obsolete.The proposition, outlined in a new paper, raises the controversial possibility that dark matter, which has never been directly observed, is a mirage that a substantial portion of the physics community has been chasing for several decad...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 9, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Hannah Devlin Science correspondent Tags: Physics Astronomy Science Space UCL (University College London) UK news Source Type: news
Scientists move step closer to making IVF eggs from skin cells
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... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 8, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Ian Sample Science editor Tags: IVF Medical research Science Health Fertility problems Genetics Embryos Biology World news Source Type: news
Head of UK science body calls for ‘creative disagreement’ after Michelle Donelan libel row
Ottoline Leyser of UKRI says people in public eye should be able to debate better, with less polarisation and blameThe head of the UK government science body at the centre of alibel scandal has called for “creative disagreement” and a higher standard of public discourse, with less polarisation and blame between scientists and politicians.Ottoline Leyser, the chief executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), said that with so much at stake for the planet and given the need for science to propel a transition to a low-carbon economy, it was imperative for policymakers, scientists and the public to be able to communica...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 8, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Fiona Harvey Environment editor Tags: Science Research Green politics UK news Environment Source Type: news
Astronomers detect ‘waterworld with a boiling ocean’ in deep space
Exclusive: Significant discovery, made by James Webb telescope, provokes disagreement over conditions on planet ’s surfaceAstronomers have observed a distant planet that could be entirely covered in a deep water ocean, in findings that advance the search for habitable conditions beyond Earth.The observations, by Nasa ’s James Webb space telescope (JWST), revealed water vapour and chemical signatures of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the exoplanet, which is twice Earth’s radius and about 70 light years away. This chemical mix is consistent with a water world where the ocean would span the ent ire surf...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 8, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Hannah Devlin Science correspondent Tags: Exoplanets Astronomy Science Space UK news University of Cambridge Source Type: news
Quest to declare Anthropocene an epoch descends into epic row
Vote against formal geological recognition of ‘age of the humans’ is claimed to have violated committee rulesThe quest to declare the Anthropocene an official geological epoch has descended into an epic row, after the validity of a leaked vote that apparently killed the proposal was questioned.Supporters of the idea have beenworking on the proposal for 15 years. They say it would formalise the undeniable and irreversible changes that human activity has wreaked on the planet. It would mark the end of the Holocene epoch, the 11,700 years of stable global environment in which the whole of human civilisation developed.Cont...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 7, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Damian Carrington Environment editor Tags: Geology Climate crisis Biodiversity Environment Science Source Type: news
I discovered thousands of fossils after retiring. Now I ’m nearly 80 and still going strong
I ’ve built up a collection from a beach in Weymouth that could help to establish what biodiversity in the UK was like over the course of millions of yearsAll photos byAlexander TurnerMy interest in fossils began at the age of 10 in my back garden in Glastonbury, Somerset, where I discovered ammonites. With hindsight, it wasn ’t beauty that drew me to them, but the magic of discovery. I was drawn in by their sheer age, and the unfathomable nature of the distant past.After my degree in natural sciences in 1965 I wanted to go as far away as I could, so I applied to teach biology in Ghana. It was a fantastic period of my ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 7, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Heather Middleton Tags: Fossils Environment Science Dinosaurs Evolution Biology Source Type: news
‘Greater and greater risk’ in reality TV tests media psychologists’ skills
As TV producers push boundaries, advisers called in to help safeguard participants ’ mental health face a complex taskThe risk to reality TV participants ’ mental health is increasing year on year as broadcasters and producers continue to push boundaries to make more interesting and enticing entertainment. But while psychologists are increasingly called upon to advise on such productions, experts say these aren’t always appropriately qualified an d their advice isn’t necessarily followed up.Television and film companies are increasingly working to safeguard participants ’ mental health after allegations ofmanipul...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 7, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Linda Geddes Science correspondent Tags: Psychology Reality TV Science Television & radio UK news Source Type: news
‘Much more fixated on the sausage’: study sheds light on obesity in labradors
Study suggests dogs with POMC gene mutation are hungrier between meals and burn fewer calories when at restWhen it comes to greedy canines, labradors take the biscuit. Now researchers have shed light on why the breed is prone to a portly form.Scientists previously revealed amutation in a gene called POMC (proopiomelanocortin) predisposes dogs to obesity. The genetic variant is found in about a quarter of labrador retrievers and two-thirds of flat-coated retrievers, with the effect slightly larger in the former.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 7, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Nicola Davis Science correspondent Tags: Dogs Animals Life and style Pets UK news Science Source Type: news
What ’s behind the rapid rise of cancer in the under-50s? – podcast
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 ratesContinue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 7, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Presented by Ian Sample with Andrew Gregory, produced by Madeleine Finlay, sound design by Tony Onuchukwu, the executive producer is Ellie Bury Tags: Science Cancer research Health Medical research Society Bowel cancer Source Type: news
February was warmest on record globally, say scientists
Global average temperature for past 12 months highest on record at 1.56C above pre-industrial levels, data showsLast month was the warmest February on record globally, making it the ninth month in a row with record temperatures for the time of year, scientists have said.Global sea surface temperatures are also at their highest ever recorded, data from the EU ’s Copernicus Climate Change Service shows.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 7, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Staff and agencies Tags: Climate crisis Environment Europe weather World news Climate science Source Type: news
Microscopic plastics could raise risk of stroke and heart attack, study says
Scientists link tiny particles in blood vessels with substantially higher risk of deathDoctors have warned of potentially life-threatening effects from plastic pollution after finding a substantially raised risk of stroke, heart attack and earlier death in people whose blood vessels were contaminated with microscopic plastics.Researchers in Naples examined fatty plaques removed from the blood vessels of patients with arterial disease and found that more than half had deposits contaminated with tiny particles of polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride (PVC).Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 6, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Ian Sample Science editor Tags: Environment Health Plastics Stroke Heart attack Medical research Science World news Source Type: news
Ancient stone tools found in Ukraine offer oldest evidence of human presence in Europe
Deliberately fashioned chipped stones date back more than 1m years and may have been used by homo erectusAncient stone tools found in western Ukraine may offer the oldest known evidence of the presence of humans in Europe, according to new research.The chipped stones, deliberately fashioned from volcanic rock, were excavated from a quarry in Korolevo in the 1970s. Archaeologists used new methods to date the layers of sedimentary rock surrounding the tools to more than 1m years old.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 6, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Associated Press Tags: Archaeology Science Ukraine Europe World news Source Type: news
