Record temperatures in Europe and the US have reinforced the danger of global heating for many inhabitants. But others are and will be far worse hitWe tend to learn better from experience than from what we have simply been told. So for many in Europe, sleepless nights and suffocating buses or workplaces have helped to make real the threat posed by global heating. Now statistics are reinforcing the...

We study disaster preparedness, and ‘climate change’ is far too mild to describe the existential threat we faceWhen Senator Kamala Harris was asked about climate change during the Democratic debate in June, she did not mince words. “I don’t even call it climate change,” she said. “It’s a climate crisis.”She’s right – and we, at Columbia University’s National Center for...

Researchers say tick-borne disease ‘is everywhere’ with 8,000 diagnoses likely in 2019Cases of Lyme disease in the UK may be three times higher than previous estimates, according to new research.After analysing the anonymous medical records of 8.4 million people from across the UK, scientists forecast that the total number of Lyme disease diagnoses in the UK could top 8,000 in 2019, compared...

Rod Schoonover, who was an intelligence analyst for 10 years, said the Trump administration halted his report on global heatingA former senior government analyst has accused the Trump administration of “undercutting evidence” of the threat to national security from the climate crisis after his report on the issue was blocked by the White House.Rod Schoonover, who worked as an intelligence...

Study funded by Facebook aims to improve communication with paralysed patients When Stephen Hawking wanted to speak, he chose letters and words from a synthesiser screen controlled by twitches of a muscle in his cheek.But the painstaking process the cosmologist used might soon be bound for the dustbin. With a radical new approach, doctors have found a way to extract a person’s speech directly...

Lead scientist hopes findings raise awareness about proton-pump inhibitors’ side-effectsPrescription medicines to reduce stomach acid are associated with an increased risk of developing allergies, according to a study.The research suggests people prescribed proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) are twice as likely to be prescribed anti-allergy drugs in future years. Continue...

The concept has changed the way we think about everything from autism to homelessness. But it has its drawbacksBlack and white thinking may die hard, yet never has society been quite as comfortable with the concept of the spectrum than the present.According to researchers at Merriam-Webster, use of the word “spectrum”, in a wide range of contexts, has grown dramatically within the current...

Authors call for cognitive behavioural therapy to be offered through GPsForget counting sheep and drinking warm milk, an effective way to tackle chronic insomnia is cognitive behavioural therapy, researchers have confirmed.The authors of a new study say that although the therapy is effective, it is not being used widely enough, with doctors having limited knowledge about it and patients lacking...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you these four Venn diagram teasers:1) For each of the regions marked A to D below, think of a fraction that could belong in it, or say that it is impossible. (Each circle represents the set of fractions described by its rule.) Continue...

Where pictures and puzzles intersectUPDATE: Solutions now up hereJohn Venn – the British logician who around 1880 devised the ‘Venn diagram’ – celebrates his 185th birthday this week. Continue...

From drug trials that only use men to misconceptions about CPR, medicine’s gender inequalities can be matters of life or death A study last week revealed that women in Australia are less likely than men to receive the recommended medicine for heart failure. In the UK, assumptions that heart failure is a “man’s disease” have also led to unequal care. Over the past 10 years, more than 8,000...

The Science Weekly team are taking a bit of a break so we’ll be revisiting some of our favourite shows from the archive. Including this one from 2017, when Nicola Davis looked at why so many women with autism are misdiagnosed and how this issue resonates with broader ideas of neurodiversity. We also hear from a listener about how this episode affected her life. Continue...

Amid concerns over two-tier health system, new scheme will read volunteers’ DNA for freeGovernment plans to sell DNA sequencing to healthy people on condition that they share their results for medical research have been scrapped amid concerns it would create an inequitable two-tier health system.Matt Hancock, who survived Boris Johnson’s cabinet makeover to keep his job as health secretary,...

As the space race heated up in the 1960s, 13 aviators passed the same tests as Nasa’s first astronauts, later going on to be called the Mercury 13. But because they were women, Nasa wouldn’t even consider them. One of those women was Wally Funk, who joins Nicola Davis and author Sue Nelson this week as they discuss what could and should have been Continue...

Images from the 50th-anniversary edition of Norman Mailer’s account of the Nasa mission published by Taschen Continue...

When Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon in 1969, more than 600 million people around the world tuned in to watch it live.  Australia played a key role in getting those images from the moon to Earth. Glen Nagle, from the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, explains how tracking stations at Tidbinbilla, Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes brought the first pictures to the...

Marking the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s ‘small step’ and published to coincide with Royal Museums Greenwich’s exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, a new book, The Moon: a Celebration of Our Celestial Neighbour explores people’s fascination with Earth’s only natural satellite Continue...

Stargazers have been treated to a cosmic spectacle as a partial lunar eclipse was visible across parts of the UK. The event on Tuesday evening coincided with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 launching its moon mission. Clear skies across much of the country gave people a stunning view of the phenomenon, including in London, Yorkshire and at Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire. The partial...

Brigid Purcell recommends a book, Straight and Crooked Thinking, that should be put into the hands of every teenagerDavid Thouless’s obituary (13 July) mentions his father, Robert, but fails to mention the latter’s most notable publication, which contains one of the most important contributions of the 20th century to the public good: Straight and Crooked Thinking. Its contents are best summed...

The solutions to today’s problems - with cheesy pics!Earlier today I set you the following four puzzles:1. You have a cube of cheese that measures 3 x 3 x 3 inches, and you want to slice it into 27 smaller 1 x 1 x 1 inch cubes, as shown below. If you have a straight knife, what’s the minimum number of slices you need to do it? You are allowed to rearrange the pieces after each slice. Continue...

The party snack is perfect brain foodUPDATE: To read the answers click hereToday’s puzzles all concern cubes of cheese. You’ll need to be as sharp as a cocktail stick to skewer them.1. You have a cube of cheese that measures 3 x 3 x 3 inches, and you want to slice it into 27 smaller 1 x 1 x 1 inch cubes, as shown below. If you have a straight knife, what’s the minimum number of slices you...

Have you ever been caught out online and subscribed to something you didn’t mean to? Ian Sample has and so he tasked Jordan Erica Webber with finding out how companies play on our psyches to pinch our pennies and what we can do about it Continue...

This month sees the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, landing the first man on the moon. As the Observer’s science editor Robin McKie looks ahead to the future of manned spaceflight, we look back at how, in 1969, mankind viewed that giant leap Continue...

Thousands gathered across Chile and Argentina to witness the only total solar eclipse for 2019. Northern Chile is known for clear skies and is being turned into a global astronomy hub‘Something supreme’: thousands in Chile and Argentina marvel at total solar eclipse Continue...