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40,083 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science

Dogs can understand the meaning of nouns, new research finds

Study confirms our canine companions can grasp more than simple commands – or at least for items they care aboutDogs understand what certain words stand for, according to researchers who monitored the brain activity of willing pooches while they were shown balls, slippers, leashes and other highlights of the domestic canine world.The finding suggests that the dog brain can reach beyond commands...

Geologists reject declaration of Anthropocene epoch

Critics say it is a missed chance to recognise that the planet irrevocably left its natural state in the mid-20th centuryThe guardians of the world’s official geological timescale have firmly rejected a proposal to declare an Anthropocene epoch, after an epic academic row.The proposal would have designated the period from 1952 as the Anthropocene to reflect the planet-changing impact of...

Puberty makes teenagers’ armpits smell of cheese, goat and urine, say scientists

Research into children’s body odours also found babies smell of flowers and soap, eliciting parental affectionPuberty makes teenagers’ armpits smell of cheese, goat and even urine, scientists in Germany have discovered.The particular chemical compounds that make up pubescent body odour have been singled out, should anyone want to bottle “eau du teenager”. Continue...

‘This person saved her’: the cancer patients in need of a stem cell donor match

Four in 10 UK patients do not find a match and those from non-white backgrounds find it more difficultPete McCleave first heard about stem cells during his sciences degree in the 1990s. “I knew about them, I just didn’t know what they could be used for,” he says. “It all sounded very pie in the sky.” It wasn’t until two decades later when McCleave was diagnosed with myeloma blood...


THURSDAY 21. MARCH 2024


Scientists name newly discovered ancient amphibian species after Kermit the Frog

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

I discovered why seemingly healthy amphibians were being wiped out

The mass deaths were puzzling scientists around the world – there were no signs of viruses or parasites. Then we looked closely at their skinIt was while we were sitting and talking in a hotel bar at the first global congress of herpetology that the world’s amphibian experts realised there was a problem: frogs, toads, salamanders and newts were disappearing in their thousands around the world...

Havana syndrome: will we ever understand what happened? – podcast

In late 2016, US officials in Cuba’s capital began experiencing a mysterious and often debilitating set of symptoms that came to be known as Havana syndrome. As two new studies into the condition are published, Ian Sample speaks to the Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, who has been following the story, and to the consultant neurologist Prof Jon Stone, about what could be behind...

Medics design AI tool to predict side-effects in breast cancer patients

Trials in UK, France and the Netherlands indicate tool can predict if patient will experience problems from surgery and radiotherapyDoctors have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can predict which breast cancer patients are more at risk of side-effects after treatment.Worldwide, 2 million women are diagnosed every year with the disease, which is the most common cancer in females in...


WEDNESDAY 20. MARCH 2024


Scientists find skull of enormous ancient dolphin in Amazon

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

Plantwatch: how does moss survive and thrive in harsh Antarctic climate?

Incredibly tough plants can tolerate intense cold and prolonged darkness, but temperature has also been risingMosses are the plant superheroes of Antarctica, steadily colonising parts of the continent, building up into plump green cushions or even deep banks on bare ground, some of it newly exposed by melting ice and snow.These are incredibly tough plants that only grow slowly in the harsh...

Bronze age objects from ‘Pompeii of the Fens’ to go on display

Settlement on stilts dropped into River Nene after a fire nearly 3,000 years ago and was preserved in siltA bronze age settlement built on stilts that dropped “like a coffee plunger” into a river after a catastrophic fire has provided a window on our past lives, according to the archaeologist that led the investigation of the Cambridgeshire site.Must Farm, nicknamed the Pompeii of the Fens,...

Breast cancer drug may help thousands more women than previously thought

Pembrolizumab is used to treat triple-negative form of disease but researchers say it could be used more widelyThousands more women with breast cancer could benefit from a blockbuster immunotherapy drug than previously thought, research suggests.Pembrolizumab, sold under the brand name Keytruda, targets and blocks a specific protein on the surface of certain immune cells that then seek out and...


TUESDAY 19. MARCH 2024


People with hypermobility may be more prone to long Covid, study suggests

People with excessive flexibility 30% more likely to say they had not fully recovered from Covid, research findsPeople with excessively flexible joints may be at heightened risk of long Covid and persistent fatigue, research suggests.Hypermobility is where some or all of a person’s joints have an unusually large range of movement due to differences in the structure of their connective tissues...

Technology must tackle bias in medical devices | Letter

Engineers need to be sensitive to how exclusion occurs or they risk making health inequity worse, say Prof Steven Johnson and Prof Jonathan EnsorThe independent review on equity in medical devices once again highlights the multiple ways in which medical technology development can lead to solutions whereby the benefits are distributed inequitably across society, or can further exacerbate health...

AstraZeneca to buy Canadian cancer specialist Fusion for $2.4bn

Britain’s biggest drugmaker’s latest acquisition will help it to develop new radiotherapy treatmentsBusiness live – latest updatesBritain’s biggest drugmaker, AstraZeneca, is to buy a Canadian cancer specialist focused on next-generation treatments for $2.4bn (£1.9bn), the latest in a string of acquisitions made to strengthen its portfolio of new medicines.The Anglo-Swedish company struck...

Should forests have rights? – podcast

A growing movement of ecologists, lawyers and artists is arguing that nature should have legal rights. By recognising the rights of ecosystems and other species, advocates hope that they can gain better protection. Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, about where this movement has come from and why the UK government has dismissed the concept, and...

US and Japan push for ban on nuclear weapons in space with UN security council resolution

UN chief António Guterres says risk of nuclear war has escalated and that ‘humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer’The US and Japan are sponsoring a UN security council resolution calling on all nations not to deploy or develop nuclear weapons in space, the US ambassador has announced.Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN security council meeting that “any placement of nuclear weapons...


MONDAY 18. MARCH 2024


‘We actually don’t know much’: the scientists trying to close the knowledge gap in trans healthcare

Researchers are running trials on how hormone therapies affect trans people that will also benefit healthcare for the wider populationWhen Cameron Whitley was diagnosed with kidney failure seven years ago, the news came as a shock. But the situation was about to get worse. His doctor decided the diagnosis meant Whitley’s hormone therapy had to stop.As a transgender man, now 42, who had taken...

Fridge magnets can be cool aid to holiday memory recall, study finds

Some participants in Liverpool University survey said the travel mementoes were more important to them than photographsWhether holding up shopping lists or hastily scrawled messages, fridge magnets are highly functional holiday souvenirs. Yet a new study suggests these trinkets may also provide an important means of accessing happy – and not so happy – memories of past trips.Pervasive as...

Star wars: Sri Lanka’s powerful astrologers split over auspicious dates

Group employed by government divided for first time over best date for new year ritualsSri Lanka’s government-backed traditional astrologers have failed to unanimously agree on the best date for new year rituals, with squabbling seers warning of “disaster” and accusing rivals of misinterpreting the position of stars.Astrologers are hugely influential figures consulted by the island’s...

‘Holy grail of shipwrecks’: recovery of 18th-century Spanish ship could begin in April

The San José, sunk in 1708, has been at the center of a dispute over who has rights to the wreck, including $17bn in bootySince the Colombian navy discovered the final resting place of the Spanish galleon San José in 2015, its location has remained a state secret, the wreck – and its precious cargo – left deep under the waters of the Caribbean.Efforts to conserve the ship and recover its...

Can you solve it? Lewis Carroll for insomniacs

It’s not all about AliceTodays puzzles are all penned by Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and appear in a delightful miscellany of his non-Alice scribblings, Lewis Carroll’s Guide for Insomniacs, curated by LC superfan Gyles Brandreth. They may be oldies, but they are goodies!1. The Chelsea Pensioners Continue...

Starwatch: March equinox is upon us as sun crosses celestial equator

Length of day and night roughly equal as longer summer days draw nearThe sun crosses the celestial equator this week, meaning that the March equinox is upon us.The celestial equator is the projection of the Earth’s equator up into the sky. Because Earth rotates on a tilted axis, which always points in the same direction, our orientation to the sun changes throughout the year. When we are in the...