Category Archives: Science

AI to track hedgehog populations in pioneering UK project

Posted on by

National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme aims to understand why population has declined

Artificial intelligence will be used for the first time to track hedgehog populations as part of a pioneering project aimed at understanding how many of them are left in the UK and why they have suffered a decline.

Images of the prickly mammals snuffling around urban parks, private gardens, woodlands and farmland will be captured by cameras and filtered by AI trained to differentiate between wildlife and humans.

Continue reading...

UK genetics project looks for lost apple varieties to protect fruit in climate crisis

Posted on by

Heritage orchard at RHS Rosemoor to be sampled this spring as part of search for previously unrecorded ‘survivor’ cultivars

Gardeners are searching for lost apple varieties by sequencing the genetics of trees in ancient orchards, in the hope they hold traits that can help the fruit survive climate breakdown.

Heritage apple trees at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) garden Rosemoor will be sampled this spring with the aim of finding species of apple enjoyed by people hundreds of years ago.

Continue reading...

Coffee drinkers have much lower risk of bowel cancer recurrence, study finds

Posted on by

Exclusive: Scientists say people with disease who drink two to four cups a day are less likely to see it return

People with bowel cancer who drink two to four cups of coffee a day are much less likely to see their disease come back, research has found.

People with the illness who consume that amount are also much less likely to die from any cause, the study shows, which suggests coffee helps those diagnosed with the UK’s second biggest cancer killer.

Continue reading...

Planet-eating stars more common than previously thought, astrophysicists find

Posted on by

New research from Australian scientists shows strong evidence even mid-life stable stars like our sun have engulfed entire planets

Planet-eating stars are more abundant in the universe than previously thought, an Australian-led study has found.

The study, by the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in Three Dimensions (Astro 3D), looked at “co-natal” or twin stars, born from the same molecular cloud, where one had “eaten” a planet and the other had not.

Continue reading...

Scientists name newly discovered ancient amphibian species after Kermit the Frog

Posted on by

Kermitops gratus are thought to be among first true amphibians and a key step in transition of life from water to land

After achieving worldwide fame through numerous hit films and TV shows, leading to a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, Kermit the Frog has another accolade: a 270m-year-old fossil named after him.

Scientists have discovered a species of an ancient amphibian ancestor, which they have named Kermitops gratus because of its resemblance to the bright green star of The Muppet Show.

Continue reading...

Scientists find skull of enormous ancient dolphin in Amazon

Posted on by

Fossil of giant river dolphin found in Peru, whose closest living relation is in South Asia, gives clues to future extinction threats

Scientists have discovered the fossilised skull of a giant river dolphin, from a species thought to have fled the ocean and sought refuge in Peru’s Amazonian rivers 16m years ago. The extinct species would have measured up to 3.5 metres long, making it the largest river dolphin ever found.

The discovery of this new species, Pebanista yacuruna, highlights the looming risks to the world’s remaining river dolphins, all of which face similar extinction threats in the next 20 to 40 years, according to the lead author of new research published in Science Advances today. Aldo Benites-Palomino said it belonged to the Platanistoidea family of dolphins commonly found in oceans between 24m and 16m years ago.

Continue reading...

UK researchers find way of diagnosing bowel cancer without biopsies

Posted on by

PET scans can examine entire bowel before and during treatment, avoiding risks associated with taking tissue samples

Researchers in Glasgow have identified a new means of diagnosing and treating bowel cancer with imaging technology, avoiding the need for biopsies.

Biopsies require an invasive procedure with a number of health risks, such as infection, and are limited in what they can capture within a patient’s bowel.

Continue reading...

UK scientists working on breast cancer monitor fitted in bra

Posted on by

Researchers at Nottingham Trent University hope device used at home will improve tracking of tumours

Scientists are developing a device that fits inside a bra and could monitor whether a breast cancer tumour is growing.

Researchers hope the device will provide a new non-invasive method of detecting tumour growth that patients can use “in the comfort of their own homes”.

Continue reading...

She beat a rare liver cancer – and now works with her father to find more cures

Posted on by

Cancer scientist decides to study the tumour that once afflicted his small daughter – and now her work is adding to his project’s success

Elana Simon was 10 years old when she started to experience severe pains in her abdomen. For two years, puzzled doctors put forward diagnoses including lactose intolerance, Crohn’s disease and stress. It was not until 2008 that they pinpointed the real cause. Elana was suffering from fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC), a rare, usually lethal, form of liver cancer.

“In a way, it was comforting to have a word for what was wrong with me after so much confusion about my condition,” Elana told the Observer. “Pre-diagnosis, my life was a mixture of discomfort and fear. Now I had something to focus on.”

Continue reading...

Canada moves to protect coral reef that scientists say ‘shouldn’t exist’

Posted on by

Discovery was made after First Nations tipped off ecologists about groups of fish gathering in a fjord off British Columbia

Deep in the hostile waters off Canada’s west coast, in a narrow channel surrounded by fjords, lies a coral reef that scientists believe “shouldn’t exist”. The reef is the northernmost ever discovered in the Pacific Ocean and offers researchers a new glimpse into the resilience – and unpredictability – of the deep-sea ecosystems.

For generations, members of the Kitasoo Xai’xais and Heiltsuk First Nations, two communities off the Central Coast region of British Columbia, had noticed large groups of rockfish congregating in a fjord system.

Continue reading...

US rancher used tissue and testicles to breed ‘giant’ sheep to sell for hunting

Posted on by

Arthur Schubarth, 80, pleads guilty to trafficking in ‘audacious’ and unlawful scheme to cross-breed sheep for lucrative sale

A Montana rancher illegally used tissue and testicles from wild sheep killed by hunters in central Asia and the US to breed “giant” hybrid sheep for sale to private hunting preserves in Texas, according to court documents and federal prosecutors.

Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 80, of Vaughn, Montana, pleaded guilty to felony charges of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to traffic wildlife during an appearance Tuesday before a federal judge in Great Falls.

Continue reading...

Space One rocket explodes soon after launch in Japan

Posted on by

First attempt with private Kairos rocket was intended to test viability of homegrown commercial launch business

A rocket made by a Japanese company has exploded seconds after it was launched with the goal of putting a satellite into orbit.

Tokyo-based Space One’s 18-metre Kairos rocket blasted off from the company’s launch pad in the Wakayama region of western Japan, carrying a small government test satellite, on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Overweight girls ‘more likely to see GP about musculoskeletal problems’

Posted on by

Study finds reception-age girls with obesity 67% more likely to see doctor about musculoskeletal issues than those at healthy weight

Girls aged between four and 11 who are overweight or obese are more likely to see a GP at least once about musculoskeletal problems than their healthy weight peers, research suggests.

Pupils in reception year who had a body mass index considered overweight were 24% more likely to see a doctor at least once for a musculoskeletal issue while their peers who were living with obesity were 67% more likely to do so than girls with a healthy weight, the study found.

Continue reading...

Diane Abbott says it is ‘frightening’ to hear what Tory donor Frank Hester said about her – UK politics live

Posted on by

Hackney MP says she feels more vulnerable after Tory donor said looking at her makes you ‘want to hate all black women’

Kwasi Kwarteng, the Conservative former chancellor, has said that the remarks about Diane Abbott attributed to Frank Hester were clearly racist and sexist. But he said he did not know for sure that Hester actually used those words.

Speaking on the BBC’s Politics Live, Kwarteng said:

[Those comments] are clearly racist, and they’re clearly sexist.

And I think Diane [Abbott] was right to point out that the call to violence, even in a flippant way, is really inappropriate. So they were very stupid remarks.

Continue reading...

Staff at Alan Turing Institute speak out after four men given top roles

Posted on by

Employees say there is a trend of limited diversity among the senior scientific leadership at the London centre for AI

Staff at the UK’s national institute for artificial intelligence and data science have expressed “serious concerns” about the organisation’s approach to diversity after it appointed four men to senior roles.

A letter addressed to the leadership of the Alan Turing Institute (ATI) said the appointments showed a “‘continuing trend of limited diversity within the institute’s senior scientific leadership”.

Continue reading...

Astronomers detect ‘waterworld with a boiling ocean’ in deep space

Posted on by

Exclusive: Significant discovery, made by James Webb telescope, provokes disagreement over conditions on planet’s surface

Astronomers have observed a distant planet that could be entirely covered in a deep water ocean, in findings that advance the search for habitable conditions beyond Earth.

The observations, by Nasa’s James Webb space telescope (JWST), revealed water vapour and chemical signatures of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the exoplanet, which is twice Earth’s radius and about 70 light years away. This chemical mix is consistent with a water world where the ocean would span the entire surface, and a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge, although they do not envisage a balmy, inviting seascape.

Continue reading...

Ancient stone tools found in Ukraine offer oldest evidence of human presence in Europe

Posted on by

Deliberately fashioned chipped stones date back more than 1m years and may have been used by homo erectus

Ancient stone tools found in western Ukraine may offer the oldest known evidence of the presence of humans in Europe, according to new research.

The chipped stones, deliberately fashioned from volcanic rock, were excavated from a quarry in Korolevo in the 1970s. Archaeologists used new methods to date the layers of sedimentary rock surrounding the tools to more than 1m years old.

Continue reading...

‘Hypervaccinated’ man reportedly received 217 Covid jabs without side effects

Posted on by

German man, who said he had vaccines for ‘private reasons’, suspected of selling certificates to people who didn’t want jab

A German man who voluntarily received 217 coronavirus jabs over 29 months showed “no signs” of having been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 and had not suffered from any vaccine-related side effects, according to a study published in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The 62-year-old, from Magdeburg, Germany, whom doctors described as “hypervaccinated”, said he had had the large number of vaccines for “private reasons”, according to the researchers from University of Erlangen-Nuremberg who examined him.

Continue reading...

Argentina fights against vast swarms of mosquitoes blamed for dengue surge

Posted on by

Tens of thousands of dengue cases recorded this year as high temperatures and rainy weather create ‘perfect formula’ for bugs

In his 20 years cleaning the Buenos Aires subway, Mauricio Ríos, 52, had never seen anything like it: a vast and noisy swarm of mosquitoes churning in dark clouds the length of the platform at Piedras station.

Ríos pulled out his phone and filmed the growing swarm for half a minute, before rushing to the break room, contacting his superior and shutting down the station.

Continue reading...

Screen time robs average toddler of hearing 1,000 words spoken by adult a day, study finds

Posted on by

Research into 220 Australian families over two years concludes exposure to television, phone and other screens hinders young children’s language skills

The average toddler is missing out on hearing more than 1,000 words spoken by an adult each day due to screen time, setting back their language skills, a first-of-its kind study has found.

The research, published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama) Pediatrics, tracked 220 Australian families over two years to measure the relationship between family screen use and children’s language environment.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...