World faces ‘malaria emergency’ from resistance to insecticides, waning efficacy of drugs, funding shortfalls and climate changeAfrican leaders have warned that the world is facing the “biggest malaria emergency” of the past two decades.Heads of state and experts came together in a show of unity to call for urgent action on malaria at the UN general assembly on Friday, saying progress on...

Adjustment of behaviour shown in study suggests learning is integral function of neuronsJellyfish change their behaviour based on past experiences, researchers have revealed, in a study that suggests learning could be a fundamental property of the way nerve cells work.Unlike humans, jellyfish do not have a central brain. However, box jellyfish have clusters of neurons associated with the...

Capsule will contain some of oldest materials formed in solar systemOn Sunday morning, somewhere above the Utah desert, a parachute will open and a capsule containing about 250g of rubble will float to the ground. As it descends, four helicopters bearing scientists, engineers and military safety personnel will race across the arid landscape to recover the precious cargo.Because this is not just...

WHO says China facing ‘sustained community transmission’ of virus first detected as imported case last yearChina is fuelling a global surge in mpox cases, accounting for the majority of new cases reported in September, according to the World Health Organization.The number of weekly cases reported globally increased by 328% in the week to 10 September, data shows. Most of that rise came from...

Aditi Shankar, eight, has pioneering treatment resulting in her body accepting donor kidney as its ownAn eight-year-old girl has been spared from taking life-long drugs to stop her body rejecting her kidney transplant thanks to a UK-first treatment.Aditi Shankar’s immune system was “reprogrammed” after a stem cell transplant, resulting in her body accepting a donor kidney as its own,...

Discovery adds weight to view that Europa’s ocean could be most promising place in solar system to look for alien lifeThe vast subterranean ocean of Europa, one of Jupiter’s many moons, contains carbon, one of the crucial ingredients for life, scientists have discovered.The observations, by the James Webb space telescope, indicate that carbon dioxide ice on the moon’s surface originated from...

First comparative research of its kind finds those with lots of social interaction and supportive family coped betterSecondary school pupils in the UK experienced significantly higher rates of depression, social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and overall worse mental wellbeing during the Covid pandemic, research shows.Cases of depression among secondary school pupils aged 11 to 13 rose...

Award for work on shapes of proteins raises prospect of AI research earning a Nobel for first timeResearchers behind Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold program have landed one of the most prestigious prizes in science for solving a grand challenge in biology that stood for half a century.Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, who led the development of AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence program, share the...

Sweden is leading in a battle to be the first European space base outside Russia to launch a satellite into orbitFirst place is “nice but it’s not necessary”, says Stefan Gustafsson, a senior official at the Sweden Space Corporation (SSC), with a telling chortle. “Other actors are more aiming to be first. Naturally, I think we will be.”It was an unconvincing show of magnanimity. There is...

Ian Sample hears from the Guardian’s Europe environment correspondent, Ajit Niranjan, about the reporting he has been doing for the launch of our new Europe edition. He talks about Osijek, a Croatian city that has the highest heat mortality rate in Europe … but no one knows whyVisit the new European digital edition, to find the best of our original journalism about Europe along with the most...

Scientists find continuous crying by mouse pups triggers release of oxytocin, which controls milk-release responseThe brain circuit that causes the sound of a newborn crying to trigger the release of breast milk in mothers has been uncovered by scientists.The study, in mice, gives fresh insights into sophisticated changes that occur in the brain during pregnancy and parenthood. It found that 30...

Exclusive: National Muscle Disease Bio-databank will store blood test and skin biopsy samples from children with diseases such as muscular dystrophyGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastBindu Shree remembers her daughter Ivani had “such a nice plump face as a baby”, but now she sees gravity pulling down her four-year-old’s cheeks as the muscles in her face...

Logs shaped with sharp tools on border of river predate rise of modern humans and may have formed walkway or platformResearchers have discovered remnants of what is thought to be the world’s oldest known wooden structure, an arrangement of logs on the bank of a river bordering Zambia and Tanzania that predates the rise of modern humans.The simple structure, made by shaping two logs with sharp...

Armed with plastic pots, probes and the science of eDNA, researchers in Gloucestershire are searching for evidence of the critically endangered fishThe astonishing secrets being revealed by the science of environmental DNA (eDNA) are revolutionising the way in which we study and protect biodiversity, from the densest tropical jungle to the deepest ocean trench. But standing beside a ditch in the...

UK not a serious player in global race for green growth, says Greenpeace, while Oxfam says move is ‘betrayal’Scientists and environmental groups have expressed anger and dismay at the U-turn on net zero expected by the prime minister. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: Black professors make up less than 1% of science academics – will a new Royal Society scheme address the imbalance?• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionOfficially there are no black chemistry or physics professors in the UK, which many scientists say is all the data needed to conclude that UK science is institutionally racist.The Royal Society, the...

Trigger hairs that close its trap contain heat-sensitive cells that react to a rapid temperature riseA “fire alarm” has been discovered in a plant. The Venus flytrap is renowned for its carnivorous trap that snaps shut on unsuspecting insects – when the prey touches sensitive trigger hairs an electrical signal is fired across the trap, and two signals in quick succession close the trap in a...

My friend Andrew Packard, who has died aged 94, was a polymath-scientist and naturalist. His major scientific contribution concerned his work on octopuses, in which he was engaged for most of his life.Andrew’s study into why cephalopods change colour in complex patterns demonstrated that it was not just about camouflage but ways of communicating and expressing feelings. Continue...

Leading British nephrologist who founded an internationally renowned kidney unit at Guy’s hospital in LondonAs a bright young doctor at Guy’s hospital in London in the 1960s, Stewart Cameron, who has died aged 89, was determined to be both clinician and researcher, but where should he focus his talents? Irreversible kidney failure – uniformly fatal until then – was just becoming treatable...

AlphaMissense’s predictions could help speed up research and diagnosis of rare disordersScientists at Google DeepMind have built an artificial intelligence program that can predict whether millions of genetic mutations are either harmless or likely to cause disease, in an effort to speed up research and the diagnosis of rare disorders.The program makes predictions about so-called missense...

Exciting scientific developments offer solutions to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The only barrier is costThe number one cause of infants being hospitalised in the US and Europe is a virus you’ve probably never heard of: RSV. Most people experience it as a mild infection resembling a cold. But it can be very serious in babies and elderly people. The tell-tale symptoms are abnormally fast...

Exclusive: Guardian has seen copy of 27-page report that Home Office attempted to keep confidentialThe UK government’s official drug advisers privately advocated for a formal repeal of the criminalisation of personal-use drug possession in 2016, a leaked document has revealed.The Guardian has seen a copy of the 27-page pro-decriminalisation report, which the Home Office ignored at the time but...

They were long derided as knuckle-draggers, but new discoveries are setting the record straight. As we rethink the nature of the Neanderthals, we could also learn something about our own humanityThere’s a human type we’ve all met: people who find a beleaguered underdog to stick up for. Sometimes, the underdog is an individual – a runt of a boxer, say. Sometimes, it is a nation, threatened by...

Asian hornets have been spotted in the UK in record numbers this year, sparking concern about what their presence could mean for our native insects, and in particular bee populations. Madeleine Finlay speaks to ecologist Prof Juliet Osborne about why this species of hornet is so voracious, how European beekeepers have been impacted by their arrival, and how scientists and the government are...

The answers to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you five problems from Creative Puzzles to Ignite Your Mind, a book of puzzles by Shyam Sunder Gupta, former Principal Chief Engineer of Indian Railways. Here they are again with solutions.1. Brahmagupta’s basket Continue...

We would like to hear from people who are eligible for antivirals and their experience accessing themDuring the Covid pandemic, a centralised system was developed for prescribing antiviral drugs to high risk patients who test positive for Covid.However in June this year the system was changed, with each NHS integrated care board (ICB) in England now having their own arrangements. As a result,...

Susan Murabana’s passion for astronomy was only sparked in her 20s as science was just ‘for boys’. Now she tours Kenya with a telescope on a mission to reveal the cosmos to all childrenIt’s 1.30am in Kenya’s parched and sparsely populated north, and 50 people are lying on their backs on the shore of a dried-up river, staring up at the night sky. Thousands of stars create a vast,...

Get your brain on trackBy day, Shyam Sunder Gupta was Principal Chief Engineer of Indian Railways. By night, he was a guru of recreational mathematics.For decades, Gupta spent his free time exploring patterns in numbers, his numerical curiosities finding their way into journals, magazines and books. Continue...

New research finds evidence that exposure to PFAS and phenols increases odds of certain ‘hormonally driven’ cancers for womenWomen exposed to several widely used chemicals appear to face increased odds for ovarian and other certain types of cancers, including a doubling of odds for melanoma, according to new research funded by the US government.Using data collected by the Centers for Disease...

How proximity to the horizon affects the colours of the moon at different points on EarthCelebrate the equinox this week with the waxing crescent moon, low in the south-south-west, cruising past the red star Antares in Scorpius, the scorpion.The chart shows the view from London at 20:00BST on 21 September. The moon will be approaching its first quarter (half-moon) phase with around 39% of its...

Astronaut says rockets from Elon Musk’s SpaceX can reduce price of launching equipmentTim Peake has backed the idea of solar farms in space, saying the concept is “becoming absolutely viable”.Astronaut Maj Peake said the falling cost of launching heavy cargoes into orbit means that complex structures, such as solar power farms, could soon be launched into space, and had the potential to...

Stress and anxiety triggered by sounds from clocks to pigeons to popcorn affects one in five people in the UK. A new book from Dr Jane Gregory, who experiences misophonia, asks whyFor some it is the sound of a bouncing basketball. For others it is the clearing of a throat. For Dr Jane Gregory the list includes pigeons, ticking clocks and the sound of popcorn being eaten.“I cried on the plane the...

The ‘gay gene’ some touted as explaining widespread homosexuality in humans has not been found. Might epigenetics hold the answer?Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastLast century, when things were a whole lot worse for gay people than they are today, there was a widely held notion that human homosexual...

From local news to international politics, absolutely nothing makes sense any more. Maybe it never will. I’m calling off the search for meaningSo what’s your theory about the Magdeburg sandwich thrower? Just in case you haven’t yet encountered this mystery for the ages, a phantom chucker of tinfoil-wrapped sausage, cheese and salami frühstücksbrötchen (breakfast rolls, a German thing...

The sport helped with my tenacity, and my creativity tooIn my Chinese family, many of my older relatives are astonished when they learn I enjoy long-distance running. First, they assume “long distance” implies one or two miles. Then, when I tell them it’s actually 26.2, they stare at me as if I’ve forgotten how to count. The more traditional ones say something along the lines of, “Girls...

Research shows people who speak another language are more utilitarian and flexible, less risk-averse and egotistical, and better able to cope with traumatic memoriesAs Vladimir Nabokov revised his autobiography, Speak, Memory, he found himself in a strange psychological state. He had first written the book in English, published in 1951. A few years later, a New York publisher asked him to...

Aids and Covid had the worst impact in poorer countries and communities; a new health accord must address thisThe Covid pandemic was an equivocator with global unity – to misquote the porter in Macbeth. We were united in being affected by the pandemic but both its effects and the responses to it were grossly unequal. More, inequality worsens pandemics, not only current pandemics such as Aids and...

Vorasidenib worked in trials but is not yet available on the NHSOn a fine spring day two years ago, Shay Emerton was in good spirits playing for an old pupils’ school football team. There was just 10 minutes of the game to play, when his life changed for ever.Emerton, 26, said: “The goalie kicked to clear the ball and it hit me on the side of the head. I went dizzy and as I went to run off, my...

With worrying mutations, limited vaccine rollout, vastly reduced testing and a creaking health service, experts are predicting a tough few months ahead“New variant”, “care home outbreak”, “cases rising”: you’d be forgiven if the headlines around Pirola, or BA.2.86, the latest Covid strain to arrive in the UK, had triggered a severe case of pandemic deja vu. More than two years since...

Malaysia trial shows quicker recovery compared with areas replanted with four or just a single native speciesReplanting logged tropical forests with a diverse mixture of seedlings can help them regrow more quickly than allowing trees to regenerate naturally, a study has shown.Satellite observations of one of the largest ecological experiments in the world in the Malaysian state of Sabah have...

The Amazon drama, about migrant worker turned astronaut José Hernández, is part rousing success story and part Nasa PRA young boy, the son of migrant farmers from Mexico, watches the Apollo 17 moon landing on a rickety living room TV set, riveted. The same young boy, now a young man, applies to Nasa’s astronaut selection program 11 times, year after year, without success. The young man, now...

Research has shown that having more elaborate conversations with infant children could lead to more detailed accounts of personal memories later in life, writes Jonathon O’BrienSophie McBain (The big idea: are memories fact or fiction?, 11 September) raises some interesting questions about “infantile amnesia”, a phenomenon first named by Sigmund Freud. In recent years, research into...

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich has announced winning and commended entrants in this year’s contest Continue reading...

Electric chopsticks and ‘jamais vu’ studies also scoop awards recognising research that makes people ‘laugh, then think’From using dead spiders to grip objects to probing the weird feeling that occurs when the same word is written over and over again, researchers investigating some of the quirkiest conundrums in science have been honoured in this year’s Ig Nobel prizes.Unlike the rather...