Elephants can wash with a hose – and sabotage shower time, scientists say

An elephant at Berlin zoo used its trunk to interrupt flow of water from hose used by another elephant

If you get frustrated by the shower hog in your house you’re not alone: research suggests such behaviour might even irritate elephants.

Scientists say they have not only discovered an elephant with an astonishing ability to shower with a hose, but spotted another cutting off the flow of water – possibly in a deliberate act of sabotage.

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Scientists discover oldest ever giant tadpole fossil in Argentina

Tadpole that wriggled around 160m years ago surpasses previous record holder by about 20m years

Scientists have discovered the oldest-known fossil of a giant tadpole that wriggled around over 160m years ago.

The new fossil, found in Argentina, surpasses the previous ancient record holder by about 20m years.

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‘Bodies were dropped down quarry shafts’: secrets of millions buried in Paris catacombs come to light

Researchers hope to uncover how people died and how diseases have developed over 1,000 years

Deep beneath the streets of Paris, the dead are having their last word. They are recounting 1,000 years of death in the city: how many are ­buried in the labyrinth of tunnels that make up Les Catacombes, what killed them and how the diseases that may have led to their demise have ­developed over the centuries.

In the first ever scientific study of the site, a team of archeologists, anthropologists, biologists and ­doctors is examining some of the skeletons of an estimated 5-6 ­million people whose bones were literally dumped down quarry shafts at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th.

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Fungi could be given same status as flora and fauna under conservation plan

Exclusive: proposal to Cop16 could see ‘funga’ get global legal consideration distinct from flora and fauna

A new era of mycelial conservation could begin this month when the UK and Chile propose that fungi should be placed alongside animals and plants as a separate realm for environmental protection.

Mushrooms, mould, mildew, yeast and lichen would all receive elevated status under the plan, which will be submitted to the UN convention on biological diversity (CBD) during the Cop16 meeting in Cali, Colombia, which opens on 21 October.

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Scientists create surgical stitch to aid healing by electrical stimulation

Researchers in China say their suture can speed up wound healing and reduce risk of infection by producing a charge

The humble stitch plays a crucial role in surgery, holding a gash together while tissues repair. Now scientists have created a type of suture they say can help speed up wound healing and reduce the risk of infection.

Researchers in China have created a suture that when put under strain – as occurs during movement – electrically stimulates the wound.

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Healthier rice variety could counter rise in diabetes, Philippine scientists say

Researchers develop grain with lower glycaemic index and more protein that ‘could have big impact in Asia and Africa’

Scientists in the Philippines have created a new variety of rice that could help reduce the growing burden of diabetes.

More than 537 million adults worldwide are living with the chronic disease – a number that is expected to grow to 783 million by 2045. Being overweight, genetics and a lack of exercise contribute to type 2 diabetes, which is the most common form. Type 2 occurs when the pancreas fails to produce enough of the insulin hormone, leaving too much glucose in the blood, and cells develop a resistance to insulin.

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A grey matter? Nature, nurture and the study of forming political leanings

Researchers find minuscule difference in the amygdala – a region of the brain linked to threat perception

Where does our personal politics come from? Does it trace back to our childhood, the views that surround us, the circumstances we are raised in? Is it all about nurture – or does nature have a say through the subtle levers of DNA? And where, in all of this, is the brain?

Scientists have delved seriously into the roots of political belief for the past 50 years, prompted by the rise of sociobiology, the study of the biological basis of behaviour, and enabled by modern tools such as brain scanners and genome sequencers. The field is making headway, but teasing out the biology of behaviour is never straightforward.

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‘Entire ecosystem’ of fossils 8.7m years old found under Los Angeles high school

Researchers find two sites with fossils including saber-toothed salmon and megalodon, the huge prehistoric shark

Marine fossils dating back to as early as 8.7m years ago have been uncovered beneath a south Los Angeles high school.

On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that researchers had discovered two sites on the campus of San Pedro high school under which fossils including those of a saber-toothed salmon and a megalodon, the gigantic prehistoric shark, were buried.

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Ig Nobel prize goes to team who found mammals can breathe through anuses

Scientific research on pigeon missiles and dead trout also win at awards for amusing studies with serious implications

In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses.

After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure.

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Pathogenic microbes blown vast distances by winds, scientists discover

Living microbes that cause disease in humans and host antibiotic-resistance genes carried 1,200 miles

Microbes that cause disease in humans can travel thousands of miles on high-level winds, scientists have revealed for the first time.

The winds studied carried a surprising diversity of bacteria and fungi, including known pathogens and, some with genes for resistance to multiple antibiotics. Some of the microbes were shown to be alive – in other words, they had survived the long journey and were able to replicate.

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How a little-known 17th-century female scientist changed our understanding of insects

Maria Sibylla Merian’s beautiful and disturbing illustrations, which shaped how we look at the natural world, will be on show at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum

More than three centuries after she made a perilous transatlantic voyage to study butterflies, a rare copy of the hand-coloured masterwork by the great naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian is returning to Amsterdam.

The Rijksmuseum, which holds more than half-a-million books on art and history, last week announced it had acquired a rare first-edition copy of Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname (Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium), described as a high point of 18th-century book production when the Dutch Republic was “the bookshop of the world”.

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African nations hit by mpox still waiting for vaccines – despite promises by the west

Last week’s planned rollout of doses faces further delays as campaigners complain of greed and inequality

None of the African countries affected by the outbreak of a new variant of mpox have received any of the promised vaccine, pushing back a rollout that had been planned for last week.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been at the centre of an outbreak of the new clade 1b variant, with 18,000 suspected cases and 629 deaths this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Bereavement in early life may accelerate ageing, research shows

Separate study shows poor diet and added sugar also linked to rise in biological age

The stress of bereavement may accelerate the ageing process, according to researchers who found evidence that losing a loved one early in life had an impact long before people reach middle age.

Scientists spotted biological markers of faster ageing in people who had lost a parent, partner, sibling or child, but the signs were absent in others who had not experienced the death of someone close to them.

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Early mammal could help answer one of biology’s biggest question, say experts

Krusatodon kirtlingtonensis, which lived 166m years ago, ‘a piece of the puzzle’ explaining mammals’ success

The remains of a diminutive mouse-like creature that lived 166m years ago could help answer one of biology’s biggest questions of why mammals have become so successful, fossil experts say.

Krusatodon kirtlingtonensis belongs to the immediate predecessors of mammals and lived alongside the dinosaurs during the middle Jurassic age. But while it was originally known only from individual teeth, researchers have now reported two partial skeletons.

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Modern-day dingoes already established across Australia thousands of years ago, research finds

Newly recovered DNA shows the predators share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs and are descended from ancient animals from China

Scientists have for the first time recovered DNA from the remains of dingoes between 400 and 2,700 years old to find the predator’s population was well established across the Australian continent thousands of years ago.

According to the researchers, modern dingoes share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs introduced into Australia from Europe but are instead descended from ancient dogs and wolves from China and the Tibetan plateau. Dingoes were closely related to modern New Guinea singing dogs, the research confirmed, with both sharing a common ancestor.

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Work on synthetic human embryos to get code of practice in UK

Code will remove grey area around stem cell-based technology and ensure responsible research, say scientists

Biological models of human embryos that can develop heartbeats, spinal cords and other distinctive features will be governed by a code of practice in Britain to ensure that researchers work on them responsibly.

Made from stem cells, they mimic, to a greater or less extent, the biological processes at work in real embryos. By growing them in the laboratory, scientists hope to learn more about how human embryos develop and respond to their environment, questions that would be impossible to answer with real embryos donated for research.

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Fangs and toilet seat-shaped head: giant salamander-like fossil found in Namibia

About 2.5 metres long, creature was an apex predator 280m years ago, before age of dinosaurs, say scientists

A giant 280m-year-old salamander-like creature that was an apex predator before the age of the dinosaurs has been discovered by fossil hunters in Namibia.

The creature, Gaiasia jennyae, was about 2.5 metres long, had an enormous toilet seat-shaped head and fearsome interlocking fangs. It lurked in cold swampy waters and lakes with its mouth wide open, preparing to clamp down its powerful jaws on any prey unwise enough to swim past.

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Egyptian scribes suffered work-related injuries, study says

Higher incidence of damage to hips, jaws and thumbs reveals their writing efforts may have taken a toll

From bad backs to eye strain, office work can take its toll on the body.

But it seems such perils are nothing new: researchers have found Egyptian scribes experienced damage to their hips, jaws and thumbs as a result of their efforts.

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Warnings over lethal and contagious strain of mpox as children in DRC die

Alarm over high mortality and miscarriage rates as mutated virus spreads in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

A dangerous strain of mpox that is killing children and causing miscarriages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most transmissible yet and could spread internationally, scientists have warned.

The virus appears to be spreading from person to person via both sexual and non-sexual contact, in places ranging from brothels to schools.

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More intense, frequent tropical cyclones may devastate seabird colonies – study

Up to 90% ‘lost in the blink of an eye’, say scientists studying Cyclone Ilsa’s effect on birds on Western Australian island

Increased tropical cyclones due to global heating could lead to dramatic declines in seabird populations, according to a new study.

Scientists found that after Cyclone Ilsa – a category-5 tropical cyclone – hit Bedout Island in Western Australia in April 2023, several seabird populations experienced a collapse of 80-90% due to the storm at the internationally important breeding site.

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