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40,083 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science

Tripping on acid in the name of science, 1956 style

Researcher unearths rare televised footage of a 1956 experiment administering LSD to a 'normal person'From the 1950s, when science and the media were making their first hesitant embrace, comes this vintage footage of an "average person" filmed taking LSD."Can't you feel it?" asks the subject as the acid takes hold. "This whole room – everything is in colour. I can feel the air, I can see it, I...

Spacewatch: Discovery delayed further

The story of the shuttle Discovery, and the extended delay in its mission to carry the Leonardo module and a robot (Robonaut2) to the ISS, goes on. Weeks of work to repair cracks in the external fuel tank should be complete to allow a launch, now scheduled for 24 February.The launch of Endeavour on perhaps the final shuttle mission is earmarked for 19 April. "Perhaps" because Nasa would like there...


TUESDAY 18. JANUARY 2011


Mystery bird: steppe eagle, Aquila nipalensis

A closer look at the morphology, anatomy and DNA of this mystery bird species reveals it is distinct from the tawny eagle, which was once thought to be conspecificSteppe eagle, Aquila nipalensis, photographed at Ngorongoro Crater, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, Africa. Image: Dan Logen, 23 January 2010 [velociraptorize].Question: This widespread and migratory Old World mystery bird...

Publishers cut off doctors' free access to medical journals in poor countries

Wealthy publishers of the world's most important medical journals are accused of destroying an agreement to allow medics in poor countries to get online access for freeWhat a world of possibilities must have opened up for a hospital doctor or a medical student in Bangladesh or Kenya when the World Health Organisation concluded an agreement with publishers in 2001 to put the world's most important,...

Theo Tulley obituary

My father, Theo Tulley, who has died aged 92, was a pioneer in medical physics – the development, use, maintenance and improvement of machines used in medicine. Theo was one of life's great idealists; his deep commitment to pacifism, Quaker practice and socialism was the foundation of his life.He was born in Brighton and lost his father during the first world war. From his earliest years Theo...

South Korea hit by fast-spreading outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease

Meat prices soar and farmers fear for future as 1.4 million animals, mainly pigs and cows, are slaughteredDespite the deployment of massive resources, South Korea's worst-ever foot-and-mouth epidemic is still spreading, threatening to turn into a social and economic disaster. The highly contagious disease broke out on 28 November on a farm at Andong, in the eastern province of North Gyeongsang.A...

Addicted to risk

Our societies have become addicted to extreme risk in finding new energy, new financial instruments and more ... and too often, women are left to clean up the mess afterwardDays before this talk, journalist Naomi Klein was on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, looking at the catastrophic results of BP's risky pursuit of oil. Our societies have become addicted to extreme risk in finding new energy, new...

Seat of learning

Just below my office at CERN is the corridor where the World Wide Web was made. Round the corner is a toilet.My first trip to CERN of the new year. The Large Hadron Collider is still on holiday (though activity around it is intense) and we are trying get as many results out as we can from the 2010 data before the 2011 data start flooding in.A month's absence does help you realise what a strange...


MONDAY 17. JANUARY 2011


Your last chance to see Tutankhamun's tomb

Visitors are causing so much damage to the tomb of Tutankhamun that Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities wants to close it and open a replica insteadWhat excites us about the past is being there: feeling the heat as we climb a Mexican pyramid; adjusting our eyes to the light in the Pantheon; watching the paint peel off the walls of Tutankhamun's tomb. Peeling paint? If, in the brief, crushed...

Mystery bird: common fiscal, Lanius collaris

This gorgeous African mystery bird species taught the taxman everything he knowsImmature common fiscal, Lanius collaris, also known by a variety of other common names, such as the butcherbird, Jacky Hangman and fiscal shrike, photographed at Ngorongoro Farmhouse, Tanzania, Africa. Image: Dan Logen, 25 January 2010 [velociraptorize].Nikon D2X, 600 mm lens, f/6.3, ISO 640, 1/350 sec Question: This...

Irreducible complexity cut down to size

This video explains how complexity can arise through gradual evolution -- thereby debunking anti-evolution argumentsThis well-done video animation addresses anti-evolution anti-science "irreducible complexity" arguments by showing how complexity can arise through gradual evolution -- thereby debunking anti-evolution arguments. This video specifically focuses on debunking the so-called "irreducible...

Starwatch: Prospects for 2011

The Moon stands in the E at nightfall today, near the junction in the sky between Taurus, Orion and Gemini and very close to its position during the total lunar eclipse on 21 December. The Earth's shadow has moved on, though, and Wednesday's full moon slips just below the shadow and farther to the S of Castor and Pollux in Gemini.Two more total lunar eclipses occur on 15 June and 10 December, but...


SUNDAY 16. JANUARY 2011