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Source: Guardian Unlimited Science
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Total 200 results found since Jan 2013.
Book reviews roundup: Catastrophe, Bleeding Edge and An Appetite for Wonder
What the critics thought of Catastrophe by Max Hastings, Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon and An Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins"Hastings hates British complacency about her military past, he hates British chauvinism, he hates Britain's patronising attitudes towards her allies, he hates Britain's love of turning retreats – Corunna, Dunkirk, Mons – into moral victories, he hates her continuing penchant for 'gesture politics', and he is damned sure that he is going to leave no treasured national myth unexploded." David Crane in the Spectator was taken aback by Max Hastings's Catastrophe, which c...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - September 20, 2013 Category: Science Tags: The Guardian History Culture Fiction Thomas Pynchon Books Richard Dawkins Features Science and nature Source Type: news
Sexiest parts of the body revealed by neuroscientists
This study would seem to suggest that there is a completely different part of the brain controlling our saucy spots, he said."I think there is a good argument for it being the insula [cortex], although there are a few ethical issues in trying to take the next step and measure that, as it obviously means that someone has to be stroking someone else whilst the brain is monitored."It is interesting, though. A lot of people think that science shouldn't be looking at such things, but if it's something that human beings are interested in – and we clearly are around sex and intimacy – then it's something scientists should stu...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - September 8, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Tracy McVeigh Tags: Sex News Neuroscience Life and style The Observer Source Type: news
Heparin, grad students, a clinical revolution and giving credit where it's due
The story of a grad student who overcame remarkable odds only to be denied his moment of glory, or a tale of dark deceit and devilish doings? The story of heparin is as complicated as the chemistry itselfBlood is remarkable.A liquid that carries nutrients, waste products and the ever-vigilant cells of the immune system around the body, blood rapidly turns into a solid when it leaves its veins and arteries and becomes exposed to bodily tissues or the air outside. This process of solidification – clotting, or coagulation – is executed and controlled by a complex set of reactions and interactions primarily involving the e...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - September 4, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Richard P Grant Tags: theguardian.com Blogposts Science Source Type: news
Pure OCD: a rude awakening
You mentally undress your friends, Tony Blair, the lollipop lady. Your thoughts are X-rated. You wonder if you're a paedophile – or just losing your mind. A sufferer describes the nightmare – and dark comedy – of living with pure OCDOn a spring night when I was 15 the mental image of a naked child entered my head and the corners of my world folded in. I put down my cutlery. My throat was closing over. Dad sat across from me, 10,000 miles away, and Mum was hunting draughts at the window.Stoned and smiling, my brother sat next to me, resting his elbows on teenage knees too high for the table. He looked sidelong at Mum ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 31, 2013 Category: Science Tags: The Guardian Psychology Sexuality Mental health & wellbeing Society Features Obsessive-compulsive disorder Life and style Source Type: news
Bill Bowman obituary
Pharmacologist and academic who made a huge contribution in the field of anaesthesiaAnyone who has had a general anaesthetic in the last 40 years has reason to be grateful to Bill Bowman, who has died aged 83. Bill played a pivotal role in both understanding how muscle-relaxing drugs work and developing safer and shorter-acting replacements.A person under anaesthetic twitches alarmingly unless a drug is used for "paralysis" or temporary muscle relaxation. This allows surgery in the chest and abdomen without the need for very deep anaesthesia and makes it possible for a tube to be passed into the windpipe to keep a patient'...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 20, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Caroline Richmond Tags: theguardian.com Obituaries Medical research Pharmacy and pharmacology Second world war Scotland University of Strathclyde Medicine Education Source Type: news
Stem cells: what happened to the radical breakthroughs?
Much was promised in the late 1990s, but the challenge of advances such as growing whole human organs has been difficult to deliverIt's 1998 and science is taking big strides. The first cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep, has just had her first lamb; the first robotically assisted heart surgery has been completed; Furbys have hit the shelves. In a bold announcement, biomedical engineer Professor Michael Sefton declared that within 10 years, scientists would have grown an entire heart, fit for transplant. "We're shooting big," he said. "Our vision is that we'll be able to pop out a damaged heart and replace it as easily as you ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 10, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Simon Roach Tags: Biology Medical research Features Stem cells The Observer Science Source Type: news
Scientists accuse ministers of putting UK seas and marine life in peril
Habitats where seahorses, crabs and dolphins thrive face destruction as plans for protection zones are watered downHundreds of species of fish and precious coastal habitats around Britain are in danger, scientists and conservationists have warned, because the government has not responded properly to plans for a network of marine conservation zones around the UK. This failure, they say, could blight our seas for decades.A government statement on the proposals is due in a few weeks' time, but signs are that it will be muted and inadequate and will fail to save marine habitats from further devastation."At a stroke the governm...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 3, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Robin McKie Tags: Marine life News Fishing Features Politics UK news The Observer Conservation Environment Science Wildlife Source Type: news
Australia faces increased risk of disease from climate change, reports find
A number of recent studies have shown a clear connection between a warming planet and increased health risksAustralia has been warned of the rising threat of dengue fever and heat stroke deaths in the wake of a study that found climate change is aiding the spread of infectious diseases around the world. The report, part-funded by the US National Science Foundation and published in Science, found that climate change is already abetting diseases in wildlife and agriculture, with humans at heightened risk from dengue fever, malaria and cholera. Wealthy countries will do much better at predicting and tackling new disease threa...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 2, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Oliver Milman Tags: theguardian.com News Climate change Environment Australia Source Type: news
Why acupuncture is giving sceptics the needle
Acupuncture has been prescribed by half of Britain's doctors, but after 3,000 clinical trials its efficacy remains unproven. So is the NHS making a grave error in supporting this ancient treatment?• Are vitamin pills a sham? Q&A with Dr. Paul OffitYou can't get crystal healing on the NHS. The Department of Health doesn't fund faith healing. And most doctors believe magnets are best stuck on fridges, not patients. But ask for a treatment in which an expert examines your tongue, smells your skin and tries to unblock the flow of life force running through your body with needles and the NHS will be happy to oblige.The govern...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - July 26, 2013 Category: Science Authors: David Derbyshire Tags: Culture Health Science and scepticism Features NHS Alternative medicine The Observer Source Type: news
If only a Scotsman had boldly gone… | Kevin McKenna
The UK Space Conference opens in Glasgow this week – where better to hold it with all these UFOs around?Like many Scots, I am proud of my country's role in Earth's understanding of outer space. When it first dawned on me as a child that the most important member of Captain James T Kirk's Starship Enterprise was Scottish, I was bursting with pride. Neither do you get to have names such as Neil Armstrong or John Glenn unless there is a significant quotient of Scots blood in you. And when it was revealed many years later that Obi-Wan Kenobi too was Scottish, well… our place in cosmology was finally secured. There have eve...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - July 13, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Kevin McKenna Tags: Comment UFOs Star Trek UK news Scotland The Observer Space Comment is free Source Type: news
Painkiller increases chance of heart attack, health officials advise
Experts says patients with heart conditions should stop using diclofenac after study finds stroke and heart attack linkHealth officials have advised patients with heart problems to avoid an over-the-counter painkiller used by millions after research found that it can significantly increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that patients with an underlying heart condition, such as heart failure, heart disease or circulatory problems, or patients who have previously suffered heart attacks or strokes, should no longer use diclofenac.An MHRA spokesman said th...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - June 29, 2013 Category: Science Tags: Heart attack The Guardian News Health Society Drugs UK news Science Source Type: news
Tamoxifen boost for breast cancer sufferers
Study finds that death rates fall significantly for patients who take the drug for 10 years rather than the standard fiveBreast cancer is less likely to recur if women previously treated for the disease take the drug tamoxifen for 10 years, instead of the recommended five, according to a British study. The study was a component of a larger international trial for which similar results were announced last year.Researchers estimated that, compared with taking no tamoxifen, 10 years of the drug reduces breast cancer death rates by a third in the first 10 years and by half after that. "Until now, there have been doubts whether...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - June 2, 2013 Category: Science Tags: The Guardian News Health Medical research Society Drugs UK news Breast cancer Science Source Type: news
Everest hosts breathtaking medical research | Greg Foot
The Xtreme Everest project is investigating why some people cope better with low oxygen conditions than othersIt is a disconcerting feeling, not being able to breathe. It wasn't as though I was running for a bus or anything like that either; I was simply walking to the lab – a gentle 50 or so metres up a very shallow incline. Yet, every few steps I found myself buckled into an almost vertical foetal position, trying to suck the cold, thin air deep into my lungs.It shouldn't have been a surprise. I was higher than I'd ever been in my life, bent double on a point that would soar over anywhere in Europe, even the ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - May 29, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Greg Foot Tags: Blogposts Mountaineering World news Health guardian.co.uk Medical research Human biology Society Mount Everest Science Source Type: news
What goes on when lightning strikes?
One lightning flash could run a whole power station – and there are 8 million strikes around the Earth every day. We still don't know what triggers the phenomenon, although a new theory proposes a role for cosmic raysA new theory from Russian researchers suggests that lightning may be a by-product of cosmic rays. Surprisingly, despite studying lightning for centuries, we are still not sure what triggers it.Divine attributionIn ancient times, the drama of thunder and lightning so clearly went beyond human scale that the phenomenon was handed wholesale to the gods. The Greeks had Zeus, the Romans Jupiter. At the head of th...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - May 25, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Brian Clegg Tags: Meteorology World news Natural disasters and extreme weather Features UK news The Observer Science Source Type: news
Joe Farman obituary
Scientist whose discovery of the depletion of the ozone layer sparked global action to phase out dangerous chemicalsJoe Farman, who has died aged 82, was the leader of a small group of scientists who made one of the most important discoveries in recent history. In 1985, they published a landmark paper on the ozone layer, the protective skin that filters the sun's ultraviolet rays and without which the rays can cause cancers and eye damage. Their research showed that the ozone layer was being rapidly depleted over the Antarctic.Just two years later, world governments signed the Montreal protocol, a treaty phasing out the us...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - May 16, 2013 Category: Science Authors: Fiona Harvey Tags: Obituaries Ozone layer guardian.co.uk Physics Environment Science Source Type: news
