Science | The Guardian

Drifting SpaceX rocket heading for accidental collision with moon

Associated Press — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 13:05:10 GMT

Scientists and sky gazers will watch intently as rocket’s upper stage slams into lunar surface on Wednesday

A drifting SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon after launching a pair of lunar landers more than a year ago.

The rocket’s upper stage will unintentionally slam into the moon on Wednesday, carving out a crater and sending up a plume of dust and rubble that scientists – and sky gazers – are eager to observe.

‘Extremely scary findings’ show climate crisis is supercharging Europe’s wildfire weather

Damian Carrington Environment editor — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 07:00:07 GMT

Latest study says global heating has made hot, dry and windy conditions in Spain at least 20 times more likely

The extreme heat and drought stoking huge wildfires in Spain and France were made far more likely by the climate crisis, a scientific analysis has found.

Global heating made hot, dry and windy weather at least 20 times more likely in Spain and twice as likely in France, experts from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) consortium calculated. The finding is the latest to pin the blame for the continent’s sweltering and deadly summer firmly on the heating caused by the burning of oil, gas and coal.

Drones offer alternative to balloons for weather research

David Hambling — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 05:00:04 GMT

Pre-programmed flights gather data at different altitudes then return to bases to recharge and download

Weather happens in the boundary layer, the atmosphere from ground level to a few thousand metres, but this can be difficult to study in detail: weather stations are too low, and aircraft are expensive. Instrumented weather balloons are the traditional solution, and thousands are released every day. But these are at the mercy of the wind and use irreplaceable helium.

Drones offer an alternative and the US company Meteomatics has taken the idea further with Meteobase, a base station on the ground with a drone that can be launched and recovered automatically. It carries out a pre-programmed flight, gathering data at different altitudes, then returns to recharge and download data which the Meteobase sends to researchers.

Excessive time spent online linked to stress and worse mood – study

Tobi Thomas Health and inequalities correspondent — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:05:59 GMT

German study surveyed adults who engage in gaming, pornography and online shopping

Spending excessive time online is associated with higher stress levels, worse mood, and greater neglect of other activities, according to analysis.

The new study by academics at the University of Duisburg-Essen published in the journal PLOS One, surveyed 900 German adults in 2025 who reported engaging in gaming, pornography use, social network use, or online shopping at least once in the last year.

Repeated use of saunas could help people cope better in heatwaves, scientists say

Nicola Davis Science correspondent — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:00:33 GMT

Growing number of studies assessing whether heat training can help people prepare for scorching temperatures

Even as summer temperatures soar, the sauna trend is booming, with some venues touting them as a way to beat the heat. But while experts have urged caution about sweating it out in hot weather, a growing number of studies are considering whether heat training could help people prepare for heatwaves.

With parts of the UK experiencing their fourth heatwave of the year, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued heat health alerts across much of England. The warnings follow an unprecedented summer, with western Europe experiencing its hottest June on record.

Trump administration needs to stop ‘public harassment’ of Fauci and scientists, open letter says

Anna Betts — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 14:36:13 GMT

Letter, published before Anthony Fauci will appear before Congress, accuses Republicans of ‘waging a war on individual scientists’

US politics live – latest updates

More than 155 scientists, physicians and public health advocates have called for an end to what they describe as the “vilification and harassment of many American scientists” by the Trump administration and its allies.

In an open letter published one day before Anthony Fauci, the former top US government science adviser, is scheduled to appear at a high-profile hearing in US Congress, after the Republican-controlled Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee compelled him to testify, the scientists and physicians dismissed allegations against the ex-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid) director as “baseless”.

Jodrell Bank Observatory facing closure after major funder cuts support

Ian Sample Science editor — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:39:38 GMT

Scientists say decision is blow to UK astronomy as deep space observatory is home to world-leading facilities

Jodrell Bank Observatory, the hub of a world-leading network of radio telescopes, is facing closure after government funding for the facility was slashed.

The deep space observatory includes the Grade I-listed Lovell telescope and is prized by astronomers who study galaxies, black holes, star formation, planets beyond the solar system and the afterglow of the big bang.

Senate committee delays vote on Todd Blanche attorney general nomination – as it happened

Robert Mackey, Lucy Campbell, Jo Walters, Rachel Leingang and Tom Ambrose — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 01:56:41 GMT

This blog is now closed. You can read our latest story here

Gary Peters, the Democratic ranking member on the homeland security committee, said that the committee has a long history of bipartisan inquiry and oversight, and the subject matter of risky research and the origins of covid-19 are a legitimate area to study.

But today’s hearing with Anthony Fauci was not an example of that, Peters said.

Anthony Fauci’s high-profile Senate hearing: what we learned

Jessica Glenza — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:02:22 GMT

Six years on from Covid crisis, Republicans still politicizing science – and Fauci remains a political punching bag

A US Senate committee hearing featuring Dr Anthony Fauci revealed at least one certainty: six years after the pandemic, politicizing science remains a vital political tactic.

The high-profile hearing was pitched by its Republican chair, Rand Paul of Kentucky, as an investigation into the origins of the Covid pandemic. It quickly became a forum for recrimination of a once-leading US government scientist by Republican senators.

GSK to cut jobs amid £1.9bn cost-cutting plan and bid for faster drug development

Joanna Partridge — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 13:20:22 GMT

Pharmaceuticals company is investing £400m in UK life sciences and moving scientists to new Cambridge R&D site

Business live – latest updates

The British drugmaker GSK is to announce sweeping job cuts as part of a £1.9bn cost-cutting programme to pay for a £400m investment in UK life sciences over the next three years, including in a new research and development centre in Cambridge, as it looks to develop drugs more quickly under its new chief executive.

The pharmaceuticals company announced on Tuesday it will move more than 1,000 of its scientists to its new site on the Cambridge biomedical campus. It will close its R&D site in Stevenage in Hertfordshire by 2029, while upgrading its R&D laboratories at nearby Ware and moving some employees there.

Gunther von Hagens, creator of Body Worlds and plastination, dies aged 81

Philip Oltermann European culture editor — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 13:52:49 GMT

Controversial anatomist’s body ‘will definitely be plastinated’ in line with his wishes, a spokesperson said

Gunther von Hagens, who developed a technique for permanently preserving human bodies in rigid states and toured the world with his controversial Body Worlds exhibition, has moved closer to fulfilling a long-held wish to be sliced up and displayed in a museum after dying aged 81.

“It is with deep sadness that the family and the Institute for Plastination announce the passing of Dr Gunther von Hagens, inventor of plastination and creator of the Body Worlds exhibitions,” the German anatomist’s institute said in a statement on Monday.

The Guardian view on the Lovell telescope: budget cuts to physics are bad science and worse politics | Editorial

Editorial — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:32:01 GMT

Funders have picked a damaging fight with scientists and the public. They should reconsider their plans

The iconic Lovell telescope, housed at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, has always expanded our view of the universe – from tracking the Sputnik launch in 1957 to its current contributions to the study of dark matter. It is now threatened with closure after it was announced that government funding will not continue past March 2028. The projected savings are just £2.8m a year.

This is just the latest in a rolling package of cuts from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) – which disperses government funding to particle, astro and nuclear physics, among other disciplines – aimed at saving about £160m over the next four years. The STFC has insisted that the measures are a result of cost overruns. That may be true, but it is hard not to see this as part of a larger shift in what kind of science the government funds and prioritises, and what areas it allows to wither.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

For parents staring down the barrel of six weeks’ childcare: take a tip from orangutans | Helen Pilcher

Helen Pilcher — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:32 GMT

With the news that the ginger giants arrange playdates for their offspring, scientists say messing about has health benefits for humans of all ages

The school summer holidays are upon us. Cue the annual expectation that parents will conjure up six weeks of affordable, memory-making fun while holding down a job and hanging on to their sanity. Baking, picnics and den building may be wholesome, but they also involve spending time with your children. By day four, the den starts to look less like a place of adventure and more like somewhere to hide till September.

The answer, of course, is the playdate: the socially sanctioned art of abdicating responsibility for a few precious hours so you can finish a cup of tea while it’s still warm. And it turns out that humans aren’t the only ones to have discovered the benefits of a little parental outsourcing. A recent study suggests that orangutan mothers also arrange playdates for their offspring.

Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of This Book May Cause Side Effects

The Guardian view on ancient DNA: a female shaman exposes our flawed assumptions about the past | Editorial

Editorial — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:25:15 GMT

Thanks to new technology we are are acquiring insights into earlier times, and realising how little we truly know

Archaeologists believe the Upton Lovell Shaman, who lived in what is now Wiltshire 4,000 years ago, was an important religious leader and metalworker because of the artefacts and tools buried with the body. Until very recently it was also believed, on considerably slimmer evidence, that this shaman was a man: it was simply assumed that someone of such status must be male, and the view was barely questioned over the years. Now ancient DNA analysis performed at the Francis Crick Institute has revealed that the body, held by the Wiltshire Museum, is in fact a woman.

That should cause a stir in bronze-age studies. But it is also yet another example of how many of our assumptions about human history have been upended by the rise of ancient DNA analysis over the past two decades. Others include the revelation that there were (frequent) liaisons between humans and Neanderthals just 50,000 years ago, a reconstruction suggesting that the first modern Britons had “dark to black” skin, and the closing of longstanding mysteries such as what really killed two members of Italy’s powerful Medici family in the 16th century (probably malaria, not murder as was often believed). Every time we widen our keyhole view of the past even slightly, we are confronted by how many of our seemingly grounded assumptions are, in fact, wrong.

AI can fuel biological weapons. We must harness its power for defense | Annie Jacobsen

Annie Jacobsen — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:00:38 GMT

The offensive potential is no longer theoretical. We need to develop systems to strengthen public health as quickly as AI is accelerating biological design

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the biological sciences, it is pushing the future of biology in two opposing directions. AI can help bad actors generate recipes for biological weapons with just a few keystrokes and computational prompts. At the same time, AI can track disease outbreaks and deliver critical public health information to millions of people in real time – potentially stopping a deadly outbreak in its tracks. What we are dealing with in this moment is profound: a race between offense and defense. Between the proliferation of dark biology, where deadly pathogens are engineered in secret, and the promise of a new era of collective global health.

Every infectious disease outbreak begins with a handful of cases. Public health wins by learning about an outbreak before it spreads wide, before hospitals fill and a crisis starts to spiral out of control. As transmission rates explode, options shrink. One of AI’s greatest values is its ability to compress the timeline between outbreak and detection. Speed can mean the difference between containing an outbreak and confronting an epidemic, or another global pandemic.

Revisited: Saunas and cold plunges, where does the evidence stand? – podcast

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 04:00:53 GMT

Saunas and cold plunge pools are popping up everywhere in the UK, bringing fiery heat and icy cold to a beach, city farm or park near you. Their users will be ready with all the reasons why it’s good for both the mind and the body. But what’s the evidence for the benefits of sauna and cold plunge? In this episode from April, Madeleine Finlay hears from Ian Sample and Dr Heather Massey, associate professor at the University of Portsmouth’s extreme environments laboratory

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Revisited: The surprising science of dreams and nightmares – podcast

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:00:29 GMT

In this episode from January 2026, Ian Sample puts listeners’ questions about dreams and nightmares to Dr Michelle Carr, the director of the Dream Engineering Laboratory in Montreal’s Centre for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine, and the author of the book Into the Dream Lab. They look at why we dream, what we can learn by examining our dreams, and what we can do when dreams turn into nightmares. Carr gives her top tips for taking charge of our dreams and trying to influence their content

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Order Into the Dream Lab by Dr Michelle Carr via the Guardian Bookshop

Revisited: A Scottish tea mystery, episode three – a bag for life

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 04:00:35 GMT

Science correspondent Nicola Davis investigates the strange story of Tam O’Braan and his attempts to grow tea in Scotland.

In episode three of this mini-series first broadcast in October 2025, all of O’Braan’s lies come to a head and it is revealed where he was sourcing the tea being supplied to hotels and shops. At trial, O’Braan takes the stand and the Scottish growers finally get some answers. But what remains today of the Scottish tea industry that O’Braan instigated?

A strange brew: the case of the man behind an audacious Scottish tea fraud

Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod

Deaf people excluded from gene-editing debate | Letter

Guardian Staff — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 16:51:56 GMT

There is no majority support for use of gene editing on non-life-threatening conditions, writes Tom Lichy of the British Deaf Association

Your editorial (The Guardian view on gene-edited humans: darker uses must be acknowledged alongside medical ones, 5 July) offers welcome support to those expressing concern about the lack of public dialogue on gene-edited humans. These concerns are exacerbated when some scientists view the use of germline editing to eradicate hereditary conditions as inevitable.

The new polling for the Progress Educational Trust reported in your editorial indicates that the UK public agrees with the use of gene editing to correct life‑threatening genetic conditions. No such majority supports use for conditions such as deafness which are not remotely life-threatening.

Did you solve it? Do you think like a physicist?

Alex Bellos — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 15:47:25 GMT

The answer to today’s puzzle

Earlier today I set you a puzzle about keeping homes cool in a heatwave. Here it is again with the solution.

Imagine a room with a set of curtains. When the Sun is shining, its energy comes through the windows where it is absorbed by the curtains. The curtains get hotter and hotter until they reach a temperature at which they are radiating as much heat as they absorb. The curtains radiate 50 per cent of this heat back towards the window, and 50 per cent of the heat into the room.

Can you solve it? Do you think like a physicist?

Alex Bellos — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 06:10:48 GMT

A scorching puzzle about heat

UPDATE: Read the solution here

In a summer heatwave, you keep the curtains drawn all day.

It helps keep the room cool.

Did you solve it? This TV show is flipping brilliant!

Alex Bellos — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 16:00:14 GMT

The answer to today’s puzzle

Earlier today I set you this puzzle about an imaginary game show.

At the end of the show two people will be chosen and each placed in a separate booth.

Can you solve it? This TV show is flipping brilliant!

Alex Bellos — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 06:10:03 GMT

A probability puzzle

UPDATE: Read the solution here

Today’s puzzle imagines a TV game show.

The compere announces that at the end of the show two people will be chosen and each placed in a separate booth.

'This one danced and snaked': Nasa astronaut captures aurora australis from space – video

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 01:20:34 GMT

Nasa astronaut Jessica Meir, part of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission, released a timelapse showing the southern lights as seen from the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. They appear near the poles because Earth's magnetic field channels charged particles from the sun toward those regions, where they collide with the atmosphere and create shimmering curtains of colour. 'As opposed to the previous aurora I’ve seen, this one danced and snaked its way directly below us, putting on quite a show. I am in awe of this ethereal and emotionally evocative phenomenon,' Meir wrote on social media

Nasa unveils astronaut crew for Artemis III mission – video

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:21:07 GMT

Nasa revealed the crew for its Artemis III mission in Houston on Tuesday, the next step in the US space agency’s plan to eventually land astronauts on the moon. The announcement came two months after Artemis II’s record-breaking trip around the moon that surpassed the maximum distance achieved by Apollo 13. Nasa’s Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas and the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano will orbit Earth while practising docking their Orion capsule with two lunar landers

‘Earth’s first starfleet’: Nasa reveals Artemis III crew and project’s next steps

Blue mushrooms, shy trees and glowing seas: Beaker Street science photography prize – in pictures

Guardian Staff — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:38 GMT

The 12 finalists will be exhibited at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery during Beaker Street festival from 6 to 17 August, including images of newborn fish, a native wasp and satellite trails across the night sky

The language of termites: Liss Fenwick’s The Colony – in pictures