26 articles from SUNDAY 28.5.2023

You don’t have to be alone to experience loneliness – and more friends isn’t the answer | Gaynor Parkin and Erika Clarry

Recently described as a public health emergency, profound loneliness can affect anyone craving deeper connectionsIn the UK 25 million people report they are occasionally, sometimes, or often lonely, according to the Campaign to End Loneliness. In the US the surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, recently disclosed his own experience of “profound loneliness” as he released his national strategy...

New source of fire records gives a bigger picture of the risks

Sand dunes are not an obvious place to find high-quality fire records. For a start, anyone who walks on the forested sand dunes of South-East Queensland will be impressed by the intensity of ant activity at their feet. The ant nests extend at least 2 meters below the surface. As the ants move materials around their nests, any charcoal from past fires that's preserved in the sand would be severely...

Climbing Mitre Peak seems daunting to Murdo MacLeod – but he doesn’t want to let his daughter down…

When this newspaper’s photographer and his 25-year-old daughter attempt the rarely climbed 1,700m spire in New Zealand’s Milford Sound the obstacles appear overwhelmingFive years ago, I stood at the end of a knife-edge ridge, a tangle of blue rope at my feet, my 25-year-old daughter Lilidh by my side. I knew we were beaten – we hadn’t made it anywhere near the top. I had pulled back from...

US ‘ready to fight in space if we have to’, says military official

Threat posed by ‘provocative’ Russia and China has left US no choice but to prepare for orbital skirmishesThe US is ready for conflict in outer space, according to a senior military official, after developing anti-satellite technologies to counter the threats posed by “provocative” countries such as Russia and China.Brig Gen Jesse Morehouse at US Space Command, the arm of the military...

From fleeing Hitler to Mars: the scientist who changed space travel

The remarkable journey of Ben Abeles will be celebrated next week by the opening of a new archiveBen Abeles’ impact on science was out of this world. He helped develop alloys that were key components of the radioisotope generators that powered US robot space probes on their interplanetary journeys. Nasa was then able to reveal the wonders of the solar system, from the ancient river beds of Mars...

Was ‘the first man to reach the North Pole’ a fraud?

Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the top of the world, but a new book says he was lyingWho was the first person to reach the north pole? According to American adventurer Frederick Cook, it was him. But now a new book will set out the evidence that the explorer’s 114-year-old claim was an instance of fake news on a global scale.In The Explorer and the Journalist, author Richard Evans has...

Whisper it, but Scotland is on the verge of becoming a space superpower | Robin McKie

Despite the demise of Virgin Orbit, the UK’s first spaceports should open in 2024‘Yesterday afternoon, shattering the moorland peace of Inverard, in North Argyll, powered jets burst into action. For the second time in two months a space ship took off, its fiery trail vanishing wisp-like into the blue autumn sky.”Thus Angus MacVicar began his novel Return to the Lost Planet, with words that...

Cats, peanuts, bee stings… the irritating truth about allergies

More and more of us suffer from allergies, and medicine is struggling to keep up. Rebecca Seal talks to medical anthropologist Theresa MacPhailWhen Theresa MacPhail was four, her brother was killed in an accident. When she was 14, her mother died in a car crash. And when she was 24, her father died from anaphylactic shock after a bee flew in through the open window of his truck and stung him in...