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40,083 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science

Ancient stone monument discovered

Archaeologists revealed today what they believe is a "spectacular" monument hundreds of years older than Stonehenge on one of the most remote peaks on Dartmoor in Devon.The nine stones that make up the monument, which are up to 2.6 metres high but just 20cm wide, are lying flat but it is thought they originally stood in a long, thin line.They were discovered at Cut Hill six years ago but experts...

Well-done red meat may 'significantly increase' cancer risk, says report

Cooking meat at high temperatures or until it is well done could increase the risk of bladder cancer, say experts.The warning to barbecue lovers adds weight to other research that suggested charred meat could cause other cancers, including pancreatic cancer.In the latest study, scientists found that people who eat meat regularly, especially meat that is well done or cooked at high temperatures,...


MONDAY 19. APRIL 2010


Less ash, more lava: volcano eruption enters calmer phase, say scientists

Presence of lava suggests ice that was generating the ash cloud has largely melted, say Icelandic authoritiesThe plume of volcanic ash produced by the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland is showing signs of subsiding, scientists have said, as aviation authorities announce plans to begin reopening British airspace.Iceland's weather office said there was less ash in the cloud from the volcano and...

Women to blame for earthquakes, says Iran cleric

Women behaving promiscuously are causing the earth to shake, according to cleric, as Ahmadinejad predicts Tehran quakeA senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.Iran is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric's unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by the president,...

Podcast: On the autopsy table

Science writer and broadcaster Sue Armstrong discusses the world of pathology, including a "body farm" in the US where human corpses are left out in the open to study the process of decomposition. Her new book A Matter of Life and Death is out now. At a geo-engineering event at London's Science Museum, we learn about some of the latest thinking on large-scale plans to cool the planet. Sonia Van...


SUNDAY 18. APRIL 2010


Elizabeth Campbell obituary

My friend and research collaborator Elizabeth Campbell, who has died of breast cancer aged 55, was a clinical psychologist by training and an academic by conviction. She had a fierce intelligence, integrity and spirituality. Her research and clinical interests included depression in women, and occupational and post-traumatic stress. She thought wearing fleeces depressogenic – if you were feeling...

New to nature, No 5: Scolopendropsis duplicata, Brazil

This centipede has almost twice as many legs as its relatives – and they vary, tooScolopendropsis duplicata is a centipede discovered in Tocantins, Brazil, that has either 39 or 43 pairs of legs – about twice the number found in related species. Because variability in number of legs was unknown in its relatives, scientists are rethinking the evolution of centipede segmentation. Shortly after...

New drug set to replace banned mephedrone as a 'legal high'

MDAI, a synthetic chemical developed as an antidepressant, is already being advertised across the web as a 'miaow' replacementA synthetic chemical known as MDAI has already emerged as a successor to the drug mephedrone, which was banned in Britain this weekend.Analysts at the Psychonaut Research Project, an EU-funded organisation based at King's College London, which monitors the internet for new...


FRIDAY 16. APRIL 2010


To boldly go to a commercial space age

The space exploration paradigm has moved on since the days of Apollo. To make progress, Nasa must embrace private industryIt's not surprising that people are all bent out of shape over Obama's plans for Nasa and its human space flight programme. Axing Constellation means job losses and the abandonment of long pursued programmes of science and engineering; for some people it is the end of their...

The science of volcanic eruptions

It took a month to fully come to the boil. Scientists explain how Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano finally blew its topIceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano is in the second phase of an eruption that began last month. Like all volcanos, the eruption started when boiling hot subterranean liquid rock, known as magma, found a weak spot in the Earth's crust and burst through. Scientists spent weeks...

Trans fats should be banned from all UK sold food, urge doctors

Up to 7,000 lives a year could be saved and 11,000 heart attacks avoided if unhealthy fats were outlawedThe government should ban the use of manufactured trans fats from all foods sold in the UK, a move that could save thousands of lives a year, doctors say.Trans fats, which are used in the manufacture of deep-fried food, margarine and baked goods such as cakes and biscuits, are a big risk factor...

In praise of… volcanologists

In less spectacular times volcanologists track achingly slow changes to the earth and make big contributions to society while doing soWhat does it feel like to climb into a volcano? A volcanologist would know. Those people who specialise in the study of volcanoes do not often get much public exposure; but days such as yesterday – when an eruption in Iceland sent volcanic ash drifting across...


THURSDAY 15. APRIL 2010


Where's the 'missing heat'?

Further study on oceans needed before hidden heat 'comes back to haunt us', say researchers in ColoradoExperts need to beef up ways to measure the heat content of oceans as a way to track more reliably the course of global warming, scientists say today.Kevin Trenberth and John Fasullo, climate scientists at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, say that only about half...