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40,083 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science

Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector

Do our eyes betray us when we lie? The US government hopes to find outIn Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic, Bladerunner, the police have a problem. The wayward androids they are pursuing behave so much like humans, they have a tough time telling them apart.They turn to the Voight-Kampff test, a futuristic version of the age-old polygraph, to help them out. During the test, subjects are grilled...

In praise of ... X-phi

X-phi - experimental philosophy - is variously greeted as a watershed in how we understand the world or a blind alley for philosophers seeking quick thrills. It means asking the big questions about life, but with a new appetite for scientific evidence. For years, philosophy has been dominated not so much by university chairs as armchairs, by speculation based on unverified assumptions. X-phi uses...

Space junk forces astronauts to evacuate space station

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were evacuated to a Russian escape module yesterday after space junk was spotted hurtling towards the orbiting outpost.Nasa officials noticed the object - thought to be an old part of the ISS itself - too late for the $100bn station to boost itself out of the way, forcing the crew of two Americans and a Russian to shelter in the module until...

The cuddly side of the Vikings

Academics gathering for a three-day conference on Vikings starting today at Cambridge University will celebrate the gentle side of the invaders: the town planners, ship builders, farmers, coin minters and stone carvers who were forever swapping songs, stories or a better way to rig a mainsail with their Gaelic neighbours. "The rehabilitation of the Vikings is nothing new to academics, but it is...


THURSDAY 12. MARCH 2009


7C rise will render half of world's inhabited areas unliveable

Parts of China, India and the eastern US could all become too warm in summer for people to lose heat by sweating, expert warnsSevere global warming could make half the world's inhabited areas literally too hot to live in, a US scientist warned today.Parts of China, India and the eastern US could all become too warm in summer for people to lose heat by sweating - rendering such areas effectively...

Nasa postpones shuttle launch after detecting fuel leak

Nasa today postponed the launch of the space shuttle Discovery after detecting a leak in a hydrogen fuel line as the craft sat on the Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch pad.The US space agency scrapped the launch after finding a leak in a vent line between the shuttle and the massive external fuel tank while filling the tank yesterday afternoon, seven hours before the scheduled launch. The...

Online sale of legal alternatives to class A drugs raises safety fears

• Boom in stimulants sold on websites as plant food • Dangers unknown due to lack of trials, say expertsLegal alternatives to cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines that are sold online are the latest in a new wave of stimulants that could change the way drugs are bought and sold. The drugs are available to anyone with an email address and a PayPal account.The fact that they are legal and that...


WEDNESDAY 11. MARCH 2009


Greenland tunnels may speed ice melt

Video footage taken hundreds of metres inside Greenland's ice sheet has revealed a complex subglacial network of tunnels that carry water from the surfaceThe Greenland ice sheet is riddled with channels that could quicken ice loss and speed sea level rise, a new study has revealed.Unique video footage taken hundreds of metres inside the ice has revealed a complex subglacial network of...

Regulatin' genes: Stanford biologists rap about what makes us human

If humans and apes share around 94% of their DNA, why are they so different? The answer is gene regulation, and it is explained here through the medium of rapAn extraordinary thing, this trend in science to embrace rapping as a way of getting the message out to the masses. It may make you wince, but from time to time, it actually works.Last year, we were enthralled by a truly brilliant rap from...

Progress on ovarian cancer screening

Testing women across the UK for early signs of ovarian cancer - known as the "silent killer"- came a step closer as scientists published results from the largest screening trial ever.In today's Lancet Oncology, the first analysis of the results of the trial, involving 200,000 women aged 50-74, are published. They bring a national screening programme significantly closer by showing that two...

Was Caravaggio the first photographer?

Revered as the baroque master of lifelike portraits and light and shadow, the 16th-century painter Caravaggio is now being touted as the first master of photographic technique, two centuries before the formal invention of the camera.The Italian artist has long been suspected of turning his studio into a giant camera obscura, punching a hole in the ceiling to help project images on to his canvas....


TUESDAY 10. MARCH 2009