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
The week in wildlife – in pictures: greedy pelican and capricorn rising
The best of this week ’s wildlife photographs from around the worldContinue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 12, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Pejman Faratin Tags: Wildlife Animals Zoology Photography World news Biology Source Type: news
Banquet room with preserved frescoes unearthed among Pompeii ruins
‘Black room’ with frescoes inspired by Trojan war described as one of most striking discoveries ever made at site in southern ItalyA banquet room replete with well preserved frescoes depicting characters inspired by the Trojan war has been unearthed among the ruins of Pompeii in what has been described as one of the most striking discoveries ever made at the southern Italy archaeological site.The 15-metre-long, six-metre-wide room was found in a former private residence in Via di Nola, which was ancient Pompeii ’s longest road, during excavations in the Regio IX area of the site.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 11, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Angela Giuffrida in Rome Tags: Italy Archaeology Science World news Europe Source Type: news
Feeling angry? Here ’s how to deal with it | Letters
Readers respond to Japanese research on anger management techniquesYour article (Write down your thoughts and shred them to relieve anger, researchers say, 9 April) reminded me that, in the 1960s, after visiting a preschool group in a monitoring capacity, I felt aggrieved by the way I ’d been received. On returning home, I wrote a letter to the person involved, but then calmed down sufficiently to decide not to send it. I screwed up the paper and threw it on to the open fire. I did feel better after that.Fast forward to the early 2000s, while working with a bereavement organisation, my client expressed negative thoughts ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 11, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Guardian Staff Tags: Psychology Mental health Society UK news Source Type: news
Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion by Agnes Arnold-Forster review – no place like home
This absorbing exploration of nostalgia raises questions about its slippery nature, and shows how it has been chillingly deployed in politics, from the cold war to TrumpismIn the 1970s there were American press reports of an Iowa man who was tormented by his yearning for the 16-year stretch of time that ran from 1752 to 1768. His misery was the result of not being able to find anyone who shared this deep nostalgia for a period when electricity was still a rumour and America was proud to think of itself as British.But does this really count as nostalgia? Is it not, actually, a bid for...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 11, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Kathryn Hughes Tags: History books Psychology Society books Culture Brexit Source Type: news
The senior Swiss women who went to court over climate change, and won – podcast
This week, in a landmark case, the European court of human rights ruled that Switzerland ’s weak climate policy had violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women to family life. Ian Sample talks to Europe environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan about why the women brought the case and what the ruling could mean for future climate policy.Read Ajit Niranjan ’s article about the court caseContinue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 11, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Presented by Ian Sample, with Ajit Niranjan, produced by Madeleine Finlay, sound design by Tony Onuchukwu, the executive producer is Ellie Bury Tags: Science Climate crisis European court of human rights Switzerland Environment Source Type: news
Remembering physicist Peter Higgs – podcast
The Nobel prize-winning British physicist Peter Higgs has died aged 94. The confirmation in 2012 of the existence of the Higgs boson particle, five decades after Higgs had first theorised its existence, paved the way for his 2013 Nobel win. Nicknamed ‘the god particle’, the Higgs boson was part of an attempt to explain why the building blocks of the universe have mass. Ian Sample and Madeleine Finlay look back on the life and legacy of a giant of scienceRead an obituary of Peter HiggsContinue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 10, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Presented by Madeleine Finlay with Ian Sample, produced by Joshan Chana, the executive producer is Ellie Bury Tags: Science Physics Peter Higgs Cern Large Hadron Collider Particle physics Source Type: news
Fox bones at ancient burial site suggest animal may have been kept as pet
Clues at Argentina site raise possibility mammal was buried with human owners about 1,500 years agoThe remains of a fox unearthed at a human burial site in Argentina dating back 1,500 years has raised the possibility the animal may have been kept as a pet, research suggests.Experts say the remains predate the arrival of domestic dogs in Patagonia, which occurred about 700 –900 years ago, with a number of clues suggesting the fox was seen as valuable, and may even have been a companion to the hunter-gatherers it lived with.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 9, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Nicola Davis Science correspondent Tags: Animal behaviour Animals World news Science Biology Argentina Americas Pets Life and style Heritage Culture Source Type: news
Peter Higgs, physicist who proposed Higgs boson, dies aged 94
Nobel-prize winning physicist who showed how particle helped bind universe together died at home in EdinburghPeter Higgs, the Nobel prize-winning physicist who proposed a new particle known as the Higgs boson, has died.Higgs, 94, who was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 2013 for his work in 1964 showing how the boson helped bind the universe together by giving particles their mass, died at home in Edinburgh on Monday.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 9, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Severin Carrell and Ian Sample Tags: Peter Higgs Higgs boson Particle physics UK news Scotland Nobel prizes Science People in science Science prizes Edinburgh University of Edinburgh Source Type: news
Peter Higgs obituary
Theoretical physicist whose name was attached to the Higgs boson, a sign of the mechanism underlying the structure of atomsIn 1964 the theoretical physicist Peter Higgs, who has died aged 94, suggested that the universe contains an all-pervading essence that can be manifested in the form of particles. This idea inspired governments to spend billions to find what became known as Higgs bosons.The so-called “Higgs mechanism” controls the rate of thermonuclear fusion that powers the sun, but for which this engine of the solar system would have expired long before evolution had time to work its miracles on earth. The struct...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 9, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Frank Close Tags: Peter Higgs Higgs boson People in science Physics University of Edinburgh Mathematics Scotland Newcastle Bristol Source Type: news
The mysteries of near-death experiences | Letters
Readers respond to Alex Blasdel ’s long read on the studies of brain activity immediately after deathAlex Blasdel ’s long read contains some fascinating facts and speculations (The new science of death: ‘There’s something happening in the brain that makes no sense, 2 April). However, it is odd to suggest that there are only three approaches to understanding so-called near-death experiences – physicalist, parapsychological and spiritualist.While the field of near-death studies is indeed full of “kooks and grifters”, many serious scientists and rational thinkers in this and other fields, who are neither parapsy...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 9, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Guardian Staff Tags: Death and dying Health Society Philosophy Psychology Source Type: news
Write down your thoughts and shred them to relieve anger, researchers say
Writing negative reactions on paper and shredding it or scrunching and throwing in the bin eliminates angry feelings, study findsSince time immemorial humans have tried to devise anger management techniques.In ancient Rome, the Stoic philosopher Seneca believed “my anger is likely to do me more harm than your wrong” and offered avoidance tips in his AD45 work De Ira (On Anger).Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 9, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Caroline Davies Tags: Psychology Society Science Japan Source Type: news
Study sheds light on the white dwarf star, likely destroyer of our solar system
Huge gravity of these dense stars, which have burned all their own fuel, rips apart smaller planetary bodiesIt ’s the end of the world, not quite as we know it.Scientists from the University of Warwick and other universities have studied the impact white dwarfs – end-of-state stars that have burned all their fuel – have on planetary systems such as our own solar system.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 9, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Jamie Grierson Tags: Space Physics Science University of Warwick Source Type: news
Yes, total eclipses are very nice. But have you ever smelled bacon? | Zoe Williams
I ’d love to feel the beautiful mysteries of the universe. But I have other interestsThe total solar eclipse, visible in parts of Mexico, the US and Canada yesterday,was experienced in the UK only as a “small grazing” (that’s what the astronomers call it), and then only in the north and west of the country. Happily, I went to Lewis in the Outer Hebrides for the eclipse of 2015, where coverage was 98% andpeople (not just me) had travelled for it from all over the country.It was news to me that people even existed who were that into eclipses. In further news: it doesn ’t even have to get that dark to fill “eclips...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 9, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Zoe Williams Tags: Solar eclipses Astronomy Science Scotland World news UK news Mexico Canada US news Source Type: news
