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40,086 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science

Starwatch: The April night sky

Mars stars in our April sky as it comes to opposition in Virgo on the 8th and is brighter and closer than it has been for six years. Jupiter, though, is brighter still as it tumbles westwards in our evening sky while Venus is even more brilliant just before dawn. Saturn is back on show before midnight but, on the down side, Britain misses out on both of this month's eclipses.Shining like an...


SUNDAY 30. MARCH 2014


Farewell Greenwich Mean Time (see you in October)

As the clocks change from GMT to British Summer Time, Rebekah Higgitt looks at the history of Britains standard timeIt has become something of a tradition on this blog to mark the biannual change of the clocks and, although I no longer work at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, its a habit that sticks. This time, as we say farewell to it until the autumn, it seems a good opportunity to reminisce...

Black death was not spread by rat fleas, say researchers

Evidence from skulls in east London shows plague had to have been airborne to spread so quicklyArchaeologists and forensic scientists who have examined 25 skeletons unearthed in the Clerkenwell area of London a year ago believe they have uncovered the truth about the nature of the Black Death that ravaged Britain and Europe in the mid-14th century.Analysis of the bodies and of wills registered in...


SATURDAY 29. MARCH 2014


The aerial artistry of starling mumurations - video

At dusk, an ordinary field in Oxmoor, southern England, becomes extraordinary because of an astonishing aerial ballet by hundreds of thousands of shiny black birds.I've seen huge gatherings of European starlings -- known as murmurations -- many times, but I never tire of watching them: the marvelous shapes that these large clouds of birds create in the sky, and their astonishing ability to avoid...


FRIDAY 28. MARCH 2014


Do pandas prefer Pepsi over Pepsi Max?

Would a giant panda prefer Pepsi over Pepsi Max? New research reveals the answerDuring her recent visit to China, US First Lady Michelle Obama dangled a slice of apple in front of one of the cuddly inmates at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. By some curious coincidence, researchers published a paper on the very same day revealing how pandas perceive foods that taste sweet to...

New Books Party: books received this week

A veritable smörgåsbord of brilliant writing awaits you!Below the jump, I mention the books that arrived whilst I was traveling in London. They are gifts, review copies that arrived in the mail, or are purchases I made in London. These are the books that I may review in more depth later, either here or in print somewhere in the world. While birds, insects and mammals, evolved flight in their...

Soyuz rocket docks at the ISS after two-day delay video

Three astronauts on Russia's Soyuz rocket finally docked on Thursday, nearly two days after they blasted off from Kazakhstan for the six-hour flight to the International Space Station. The capsule failed to fire its manoeuvring engines as planned after take off, causing delays. The arrival of the trio has returned the space station to its full six-member crew

How to write a science news story based on a research paper

The Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize 2014, in association with the Guardian and the Observer, is open for entries. In parallel with the competition we're publishing a series of weekly "how to " guides for budding science journalistsMost journalists want to break exclusives, but a lot of what science journalists write is neccesarily based on the latest research findings, published for all the...


THURSDAY 27. MARCH 2014


Giles Fraser says scientists are replacing theologians. Some thoughts on that

I enjoyed Giles Fraser's article "Good luck, physicists, with those tricky 'meaning of life' questions", and I appreciate the good wishes as he acknowledges the perceived transfer of intellectual leadership from theologians to physicists This transition can of course only be for the best. And this good-humoured article is definitely a step up from the "science is the new religion"...

Spacewatch: Sentinel 1A ready for launch

As the Sun edges northwards, its angle below Britain's N horizon in the middle of the night decreases and the Earth's shadow above our heads becomes more shallow. The result is that satellites that were eclipsed in shadow for most of the night during the winter are now illuminated for much longer after dusk and before dawn. Within weeks, even ones in relatively low orbits may be spotted at any...

'Designer' chromosome for brewer's yeast built from scratch

Scientists streamlined organism's DNA and added sequences in first ever creation of an artificial 'eukaryotic' chromosomeResearchers have built a complex chromosome from scratch and shown that it works normally by transplanting it into a healthy organism.According to a report in the journal Science, the international team used a computer to redesign one of the chromosomes found in brewer's yeast,...

Can one #nomakeupselfie make a difference?

It's fantastic that all the money raised for CRUK will help people live longer, but Jeanne Marie's selfie suggests we need to work on making the world worth living in.With over £8 million raised for Cancer Research UK, the #nomakeupselfie has become something quite incredible. Even more so when you consider that no one seems entirely sure how the whole thing started.Cancer research is often...

Beaked whale sets new mammalian dive record

When it comes to marine mammals, Cuviers beaked whale is the new champion of deep-sea diving The southern elephant seal is famous for its diving talents, for many years recognised as the marine mammal with the deepest and longest dive on record. But researchers in the US have identified a new champ: Cuviers beaked whale. Cuviers beaked whale was always a contender, but its diving habits are so...


WEDNESDAY 26. MARCH 2014


Crows' reasoning ability rivals that of seven-year-old humans

Tests based on one of Aesop's fables suggest New Caledonian crows have a good understanding of causal relationshipsNew Caledonian crows are as good at reasoning as a human seven-year-old, claim researchers.The scientists subjected six wild crows to a battery of tests designed to challenge their understanding of causal relationships. The "water displacement" tasks were all variations of...

Distant new world may point to undiscovered planets in solar system

Todays discovery of dwarf planet 2012 VP113 suggests that many planet-sized worlds lurk undetected beyond the orbit of Pluto, maybe even a giant Super EarthWe learned today that our solar system is larger than we had previously known. A newly discovered, extremely distant dwarf planet with the tentative name of 2012 VP113 was announced. It appears as nothing more than a dot on images but we know a...

Dwarf planet discovery hints at a hidden Super Earth in solar system

The body, which orbits the sun at a greater distance than any other known object, may be shepherded by an unseen planetAstronomers have increased the size of the observable solar system after spotting a 450-km wide object orbiting the sun.The lump of ice and rock circles the sun at a greater distance than any known object, and never gets closer than 12bn kilometres 80 times the distance from...

You cant dismiss brain imaging as just an academic gimmick

While there are limits to what brain imaging can tell us, that doesn't mean they don't have an important role. Convergent evidence is key, argues Matt Wall for The ConversationGiven the media coverage brain imaging studies get, you might think that they are constantly revealing important secrets about this mysterious organ.Catherine Loveday thinks otherwise. She makes the point that using...

Nasa measures snowpack in response to California drought

Nasa expects figures to answer questions about mountain snowmelt to gauge how quickly it could melt into runoffIn a new mission, Nasa fixed a lumbering twin-engine plane with high-tech equipment to make regular snow surveys, starting last weekend in drought-stricken California before the weather front expected to bring snow to the Sierra this week. At an altitude of up to 20,000 feet, the...

Soyuz experiences engine problems en route to International Space Station video report

A Soyuz rocket lifts off from a launch site in Kazakhstan on Tuesday before travelling to the International Space Station. The rocket, carrying Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and American Steve Swanson, entered a designated orbit 10 minutes after launching, but experienced engine problems shortly before it was due to dock. It is now expected to arrive at 11.58pm GMT on Thursday...