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40,083 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science

Swine flu pandemic warning levels may rise, says WHO chief

The head of the World Health Organisation, Margaret Chan, yesterday suggested the swine flu pandemic alert would eventually move to its highest level.But the woman in charge of the global fight against the H1N1 outbreak said a move to level six should not be taken as a cause for panic."Level six does not mean, in any way, that we are facing the end of the world. It is important to make this clear...

Cancer patients: Beware extreme diets

Cancer survivors who adopt "extreme diets" to try to stop the disease returning are wasting their time and may even be harming their health, experts warn.Dietary regimes which urge cancer patients to drink only fruit and vegetable juice, avoid meat or dairy products or take large doses of supplements may be popular, but will not work, according to the World Cancer Research Fund.A significant, but...

Beauty in the jungle

This week, the incredible human journey. How did our ancestors make it out of Africa? We're all probably the descendants of a very small but fearless bunch of people, and Doctor and archaeologist Alice Roberts gives us the story.Swine flu and what you should do about it. We give you our no-nonsense, hype-free guide.Science Weekly hangs out with some butterflies at the Natural History Museum and...

The ice-age baby from the deep freeze

Barely a month old, she fell into an ice age muddy river some 40,000 years ago, where a biological twist of fate led to her being almost perfectly preserved. Astonishing pictures show Lyuba, named after the wife of the reindeer herder who discovered her in 2007 on the Yamal peninsula in Siberia. Missing only her hair and toenails, Lyuba is the best discovered example yet of a woolly mammoth spat...


SUNDAY 3. MAY 2009


Lung cancer risk higher for women smokers

Women who smoke are more likely than male smokers to develop lung cancer, research suggests. It also finds that female smokers are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease at an earlier age and have a greater risk of getting adenocarcinoma, a common form of lung cancer. The findings are significant because those studied had smoked far less than men over their lifetimes. "Our findings suggest...


SATURDAY 2. MAY 2009



FRIDAY 1. MAY 2009


Cambridge team makes quantum cryptography practical

Making quantum cryptography practical has been a holy grail for some physicists - but it's proved elusive. Now a British team of researchers think they have discovered a way to make it accessible to anybody.Unlike traditional cryptography (where the data itself is encrypted using complicated mathematical functions) in quantum encrypted communications a key is sent by beaming a string of photons,...

US officials recall weight loss pill

Popular dietary supplement recalled after reports of liver damage and other health problemsUS government health officials are announcing the recall of a popular weight loss pill, after reports of liver damage and other health problems.Food and Drug Administration officials said today the manufacturer of Hydroxycut has launched a recall of the dietary supplement, used by people trying to shed...

In praise of ... David MacKay

The debate over climate change and energy is often conducted in unreal terms. If only we stuck wind turbines on our homes or unplugged those mobile-phone chargers, the argument runs, what a difference that would make. Which is where David MacKay comes in. A physicist at Cambridge, he wants to cut UK emissions - but first he hopes to reduce the "emissions of twaddle" generated by an argument...


THURSDAY 30. APRIL 2009


From high school to high art: the joys of copper sulphate

Dig out your labcoat, pull on your safety goggles and sequester a pen or two into your top pocket. In today's lesson, we will learn how to use classroom chemistry to conjure a glittering sapphire cavern from an ordinary flat in a south London lowrise.If the idea sounds hopeful, you haven't seen artist Roger Hiorns's work, Seizure, which has been shortlisted for this year's Turner prize. The walls...