Christopher Rufo, credited with helping oust school’s first Black president, touted critic associated with ‘scientific racists’A data scientist promoted by the rightwing activist Christopher Rufo, the Manhattan Institute thinktank, and other conservatives as an expert critic of the former Harvard president Claudine Gay has co-authored several papers in collaboration with a network of scholars who have been broadly criticized as eugenicists, or scientific racists.Rufo described Jonatan Pallesen as “a Danish data scientist who has raised new questions about Claudine Gay’s use – and...

The delay to Nasa’s 10-year lunar programme gives us time to beef up the treaties governing the exploitation of extraterrestrial resourcesIt has been a grim time for lunar exploration. Scientists and space engineers had earmarked 2024 as the year that humanity would begin its return to the moon in earnest. An ambitious programme – largely funded through Nasa’s $2.6bn commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) initiative – was drawn up. Its forerunner projects included the launch of the robot lander, Peregrine, last week – to be followed by a crewed mission, Artemis II, that would put...

New paper claims unless demand for resources is reduced, many other innovations are just a sticking plasterRecord heat, record emissions, record fossil fuel consumption. One month out from Cop28, the world is further than ever from reaching its collective climate goals. At the root of all these problems, according to recent research, is the human “behavioural crisis”, a term coined by an interdisciplinary team of scientists.“We’ve socially engineered ourselves the way we geoengineered the planet,” says Joseph Merz, lead author of a new paper which proposes that climate breakdown is a...

The spacecraft, a collaboration between Nasa and Astrobotic, is unlikely to reach the lunar surfaceThe Peregrine lunar lander is a robotic spacecraft designed by the US-based lunar logistics company, Astrobotic. Loaded onto a rocket, and blasted into space, it is designed to deliver payloads to the surface of the moon, or the moon’s orbit. Continue reading...

Pressure grows on artificial intelligence firms over the content used to train their productsBusiness live – latest updatesThe developer OpenAI has said it would be impossible to create tools like its groundbreaking chatbot ChatGPT without access to copyrighted material, as pressure grows on artificial intelligence firms over the content used to train their products.Chatbots such as ChatGPT and image generators like Stable Diffusion are “trained” on a vast trove of data taken from the internet, with much of it covered by copyright – a legal protection against someone’s work being used...

Of course there is a link between mind and body: mental health is inextricably linked with physical wellbeingYour article shows the way that depression will be treated worldwide in future (“A weight off our minds: how therapy got physical to beef up mental health”, News). Exercise as a treatment for depression has five massive advantages: it is free; it can be used in combination with other treatments; the benefits last; it confers other health benefits; and it empowers the individual to take positive action in fighting off depression.The underlying science has little to do with release of...

Before making another new year resolution it’s worth asking if change is what you needIt wasn’t until I’d finished reading a fourth article ranking “the best wellies for children” that it dawned on me that maybe I could be doing something better with this precious time on Earth. Many websites use a five-star rating to rank the boots, just as one might rate films or albums or restaurants. These ratings, though subjective and often fickle, take on a life and meaning of their own. A spiteful customer can sink a small business with one-star online reviews. I wouldn’t buy a three-star...

Despite a surplus of eggs at fertility clinics around the country, very few end up being donated to research or other prospective parentsThe vast majority of eggs frozen by prospective mothers go unused, causing headaches for IVF clinics and preventing potentially groundbreaking research.Scientists are decrying a wasted opportunity as thousands of frozen eggs sit unused in storage instead of being used in potentially valuable medical research. Continue reading...

Dozens of elections, Ukraine and Israel-Gaza, moon missions, the climate crisis and AI• Support independent Guardian journalism in 20242024 will be a landmark year: dozens of elections across the world, unresolved conflicts in Ukraine and Israel-Gaza to address, and further milestones expected in everything from global temperatures to space exploration and artificial intelligence.Here are some of the major events scheduled for the year. Continue reading...

The Marches, Shropshire: Gales like this have a violent beauty as they rip through trees, bending trunks and pulling at the rootsOn solstice eve, a gale came thrashing trees, strewing sticks. Around each tree in the park, particularly the limes and ash, was a leeward shadow of branches and twigs, mostly dead brash winnowed from the living boughs, cast down to rot into the earth.Before decaying and recycling nutrients back to the tree roots through fungi, the fallen sticks had a more esoteric presence. They fell individually but made patterns or shapes together – shapes like the Chinese...

In this special Age of Extinction mini-series from Science Weekly, which first aired in 2023, the Guardian’s biodiversity reporter, Phoebe Weston, explores the illegal killing of birds of prey on grouse moors, and asks why it is so difficult to solve these crimes. In the third and final episode, Phoebe finds out more about the pressures that drive people to commit raptor persecution, discovers how the police investigation into the case of Susie’s crushed chicks unfolded, and how Susie, the hen harrier, is doing now Continue reading...

Puzzles to mark the yearFor the first time in eight years of posting puzzles on alternate Mondays, today’s publication date coincides with Christmas Day. Festive greetings everyone!What numerical gifts has Santa brought this year? For North Americans, there’s a delightful date next week: New Year’s Eve is 123123. Continue reading...

Along with an estimated six million people around the world, Rudi Zygadlo lost his sense of smell after having had Covid. He presumed it would return. But three years later his food still tastes like cardboard. Can anything be done?To celebrate our anniversary, my partner and I dine in a trendy London restaurant in Hackney with a Michelin star – my first time in such a place. A crispy little bonbon is introduced to us simply as “Pine, kvass lees and vin brûlé.” I watch my partner light up, the flickering candle in her eyes, as the waiter sets the thing down. The impact of the aroma has...

Sniffing emotional tears from women can cut male aggression by more than 40% and cause changes in brainHuman tears carry a substance that dampens down aggression, according to researchers, who believe the drops may have evolved over time to protect wailing babies from harm.Sniffing emotional tears from women reduced male aggression by more than 40% in computerised tests, and prompted corresponding changes in the brain, though the scientists behind the study think all human tears would have a similar effect. Continue reading...

Veoza reduces the severity of this common menopausal symptom. But at £430 a month, only the wealthy will benefit just nowAfter decades of neglect, menopause and the impact it has on women’s life quality is becoming a major focus of pharmaceutical research. Hence the excitement this week about a new, potentially life-changing, drug.Part of this is the growing recognition of what a huge market it is: the NHS estimates that 13 million women are currently peri- or menopausal in the UK, which is roughly a third of the female population. The most common symptom is hot flushes, which, in addition...

Two dementia medicines set for approval in Britain are first to improve patients’ lives directly – but condition must be diagnosedPeople in Britain could benefit from a key medical breakthrough next year. They may be given access to the first drugs ever developed to slow the impact of Alzheimer’s disease.The first of these medicines – lecanemab – was recently approved in the US and Japan, where treatments using it have already been launched. A second drug, donanemab, is expected to follow soon, and next year it is anticipated that the UK medical authorities will consider both of them...

The aristocracy and celebrities are in thrall to medical quackery that while useless can be far from harmlessWhen I hear someone extolling the virtues of homeopathy, I am often reminded of a quotation from the TV show 30 Rock. “There are many kinds of intelligence,” Jack Donaghy tells a particularly stupid employee. “Practical, emotional … and then there is actual intelligence, which is what I’m talking about.” Similar, and perhaps correlating, are the many kinds of medicine. Natural, complementary, alternative, homeopathic, herbal, traditional. And then there is actual medicine...

A study shows the more positive person is ‘dragged down’ by an unhappier partner – but relationships are still beneficial overallWhen I meet a friend’s new partner for the first time, I desperately want to like them. I hope they’re generally pleasant to be around – not just for my sake, but for my friend’s. When people date someone who is miserable, it can rub off on them. Maybe you have had that happy-go-lucky, upbeat friend who starts dating a grump, and gradually, they become an Eeyore too.Research shows that people often become similar to who they spend a lot of time with...

Hormone produced by foetus is trigger for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, study findsScientists have uncovered why many women experience morning sickness during pregnancy, raising the prospects of a cure for the condition.The study revealed that a hormone produced by the foetus is the trigger for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, which in extreme cases can require hospital treatment. Crucially, women who have naturally low levels of the hormone prior to pregnancy tend to be more sensitive to the surge of the hormone, called GDF15, in the first trimester, the research suggests. Continue...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you these problems from the Mathigon puzzle advent calendar. Here they are again with solutions.1. The knights are drawing in. Continue reading...

A Christmas stocking of stumpersIn the recreational maths world, puzzle advent calendars are a thing. One of my favourites is produced by Mathigon, a beautiful free website for students, teachers and self-learners, and from which I have selected today’s puzzles. Merry solving, everyone!1. The knights are drawing in. Continue reading...

A bold genomic process is being harnessed to eliminate decades of interbreeding with domestic moggiesScientists are preparing plans to restore the fortunes of Scotland’s threatened Highland wildcats – by identifying and removing DNA they have acquired from domestic cats.Researchers have warned that the Highland tiger, as the wildcat is also known, is critically endangered because it has bred so much with domestic moggies. All animals now bear evidence of interbreeding, and many have little “wild” left in them. Continue reading...

Who are the eight surviving members of humanity's greatest feat of exploration?

In an exclusive interview, the ex-Tory peer says she and her husband were made "scapegoats" for PPE failings.

Alex Batty, who was missing for six years, has returned to the UK, Greater Manchester Police says.