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39,451 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science

Starwatch: Venus, Spica and a crescent moon meet at dawn

The ‘morning star’ will be joined by the brightest star of Virgo and a waning moon in both hemispheresThere is a beautiful triple meeting in the dawn sky this week. The brilliant “morning star” of Venus is close to Spica, the brightest star of Virgo, the virgin. On the mornings of 8 and 9 December, the already pretty pairing will be joined by a thin waning crescent moon.On 8 December, the...

Researchers create AI tool with a nose for fraudulent wine

Machine learning used to analyse compounds in a bottle of wine and trace them back to estateFraudsters who pass off ropey plonk as a high-end tipple may soon have artificial intelligence on their case; scientists have trained an algorithm to trace wines to their origins based on routine chemical analyses.Researchers used machine learning to distinguish wines based on subtle differences in the...


SUNDAY 3. DECEMBER 2023


Vincent Marks obituary

Biochemist who transformed the treatment of diabetes and was an expert witness in two high-profile murder trialsVincent Marks, who has died aged 93, was a world expert in insulin and hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar). In 1985, his expert opinion helped to acquit Claus von Bülow of attempted murder, in a case that was dramatised in the film Reversal of Fortune (1990).On 21 December 1980, the...

I used to be a huge people pleaser, but when I became seriously ill I finally learned to say no

After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, I stopped trying to please everyone else. Now I have better relationships and a healthy, joyful lifeI’m a recovering people pleaser. Suppressing and repressing my needs, desires, expectations, feelings and opinions used to be as natural to me as breathing. To me, it was normal to tell people what they wanted to hear (read: lie) to make them feel...

‘Drug use is a health problem’: inside one of the world’s oldest legal consumption rooms

At Quai 9 in Geneva, safe equipment and healthcare have cut overdoses and illnesses among addicts. But around the world, opinion is divided on whether such projects really workIn a lime-green room behind Geneva’s main train station, a man is slumped over a chair, the heroin he has just injected taking effect. Around him, a handful of others are in the process of reaching that same state of...

‘I embrace the mystery’: Tom Hanks on his obsession with space, from Stanley Kubrick to The Moonwalkers

A fascination that began in childhood led to the Apollo 13 star launching his spectacular immersive experience of the moon landings in LondonTom Hanks became obsessed with space travel at almost exactly the moment that he became obsessed with film. Listening to him talk, the two events – their ability to manufacture wonder – remain interchangeable in his mind.The first awakening came when he...


SATURDAY 2. DECEMBER 2023


Cells of people living in greener areas age more slowly, research finds

Greener neighborhoods can slow ageing process of human cells but effects of environmental racism can erase any benefitsMany studies have shown that people living in greener neighborhoods have several health benefits, including lower levels of stress and cardiovascular disease. But new research indicates that exposure to parks, trees and other green spaces can slow the rates at which our cells...

AI laser that reads heartbeat through the throat could replace stethoscopes

New invention, which can be set up at home, promises to transform the way we monitor our health, say scientistsScientists have developed a laser camera that can read a person’s heartbeat at a distance and pinpoint signs that they might be suffering from cardiovascular illnesses.The system – which exploits AI and quantum technologies – could transform the way we monitor our health, say...

Boris Johnson’s legacy will be shaped by Covid inquiry appearance

Discredited ex-PM faces a demolition job in one of the few policy areas to which he and his allies still clingEven at the height of his popularity, Boris Johnson routinely avoided close questioning – to the extent of once hiding in a fridge to dodge a TV inquisitor. The former UK prime minister is likely to be dreading next week’s appearance at the Covid inquiry. And he probably should.It is...

‘It wouldn’t exist’: Viagra inventor tells how Welsh miners began its rise

Dr David Brown says erectile dysfunction drug, subject of a BBC drama, could have been scrapped if a miner hadn’t spoken outIt was the ultimate serendipitous discovery: a failed heart medication that became a multibillion-dollar erectile dysfunction drug. But the blockbuster story of Viagra could have ended differently were it not for the frankness of the Welsh miners who took part in a clinical...

South Korea launches first military spy satellite, intensifying space race with Pyongyang

Seoul’s satellite was launched into orbit on one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocketsA SpaceX rocket has launched South Korea’s first military spy satellite, intensifying a space race on the peninsula after Pyongyang launched its own first surveillance satellite last week.Seoul’s reconnaissance satellite, carried by one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, lifted off from the Vandenberg US...


FRIDAY 1. DECEMBER 2023


Alien intelligence is surely worth shining a light on | Letters

Readers respond to a piece about Harvard’s Avi Loeb and his explorations into extraterrestrial lifeAvi Loeb’s scientific approach, including Times Square billboards, would fit perfectly into a story by Arthur C Clarke (The alien hunter: has Harvard’s Avi Loeb found proof of extraterrestrial life?, 29 November). Clarke, who predicted the use of satellites for communication and co-created...

Singing to babies is vital to help them learn language, say scientists

Study finds infants first understand language via rhythm and tone rather than individual soundsA, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P … How many would read this to that tune?According to scientists from the University of Cambridge, there’s more to the earworm than infuriating parents across the English-speaking world – they have found that singsong speech is crucial to helping babies...

Archaeologists reveal life stories of hundreds of people from medieval Cambridge

Examination of remains in hospital grounds uses DNA analysis and other disciplines to build ‘biographies’Archaeologists at Cambridge University have reconstructed the “biographies” of hundreds of the city’s ordinary medieval residents by examining their skeletons in detail, using a wealth of scientific data to fill out the life stories of poor or disadvantaged people whose names were...


THURSDAY 30. NOVEMBER 2023


Astronomers spot ‘overweight’ planet that appears too big for tiny host star

Fact that planet 13 times bigger than Earth is orbiting star nine times smaller than sun shows ‘how little we know about the universe’Astronomers have spotted an “overweight” planet that appears to be far too massive for its petite host star.The planet, which is 13 times bigger than Earth, is orbiting a star called LHS 3154, which is nine times smaller than the sun. The planet’s heft is...

10,000 naps a day: how chinstrap penguins survive on microsleeps

Scientists studying the birds in Antarctica have found they snooze for 11 hours a day without falling deeply asleepSpending your nights sleeping for just four seconds at a time might sound like a form of torture, but not for chinstrap penguins, which fall asleep thousands of times a day, new research finds.Scientists studying the birds on King George Island in Antarctica found they nod off more...

Matt Hancock denies being a liar and says Dominic Cummings created ‘culture of fear’ which undermined Covid response – live

Health secretary at start of pandemic says Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser was ‘malign actor’ who made life unpleasantHancock is now deploying the defence previewed in the Observer on Sunday. (See 9.58am.)He says from the middle of January the DHSC was “trying to effectively raise the alarm”. He says:We were trying to wake up Whitehall to the scale of the problem and this wasn’t a...

The climate crisis explained in 10 charts

From the seemingly inexorable increase in atmospheric CO2 to the rapid growth in green energy, we explore the data as Cop28 beginsThe level of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, has been rising since the Industrial Revolution and is at its highest in about 4m years. The rate of the rise is even more striking, the fastest for 66m years, with scientists saying the world is in “uncharted...

Everything you need to know about Cop28 as the summit begins – podcast

Every year the world’s leaders gather for the UN climate change conference, and after a year of record temperatures, this year’s summit has been called the most vital yet. As Cop28 begins in Dubai, Ian Sample hears from Guardian environment editor and resident Cop expert Fiona Harvey. She explains why this summit proved controversial before it even began, what the main talking points will be,...

NHS England faces lawsuit over patient privacy fears linked to new data platform

Four groups claim no legal basis exists for setting up the Federated Data Platform which facilitates information sharingThe NHS has been accused of “breaking the law” by creating a massive data platform that will share information about patients.Four organisations are bringing a lawsuit against NHS England claiming that there is no legal basis for its setting up of the Federated Data Platform...

Genetic data on 500,000 volunteers in UK to be released for scientific study

UK BioBank offers up biggest ever cache of whole-genome sequences for medical researchA new era of medical discoveries, treatments and cures is on the horizon, researchers say, following the announcement that an unprecedented trove of genetic information is to be made available to scientists.Health researchers from around the world can now apply to study the whole genomes of half a million people...

UK Biobank and the masses of medical data that became key to genetic research

The resource, which is on the move to Manchester, now ranks as the world’s most important health databaseThe origins of the UK Biobank can be traced back to a pilot study in a building in Stockport bordered by the Cheadle Heath police station on one side and the local recreation ground on the other. It was the early 2000s and scientists had realised the potential for genomics and big data to...

Lower socioeconomic status ‘triples risk of early-onset dementia’

People from less privileged background at greater risk of developing condition under age of 65, study findsPeople from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more than three times as likely to experience early-onset dementia, a study has found.The study, published in the Lancet Healthy Longevity journal and conducted by researchers at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, used...