Nash WeerasekerI vividly remember getting my first pair of glasses as a child. My mum is very near-sighted and dispatched me to the optician every year. My older sister was diagnosed at around the age of 8 and I prayed I wouldnt follow suit for fear of being made fun of, but by the time I was the same age, the world was becoming a blur. That years visit to the optician confirmed it, and I have worn glasses or contact lenses ever since.Back then, in the late 1970s, it was quite unusual to need glasses at such a young age. Not any more. Over the past 30 years, there has been a surge in near-sightedness, or myopia, especially among children. Today, around a third of 5 to 19-year-olds are myopic, up from a quarter in 1990. If that trend continues, the rate will be about 40 per cent by 2050 or 740 million myopic young people.That is more than an inconvenience. Myopia is a disease, says K. Davina Frick at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Maryland, who co-chaired a recent US National Academy of Sciences committee on the condition. It has wide-reaching quality-of-life and economic implications, she says, not least the risk of going blind in severe cases. Increasingly, however, researchers think the epidemic can be slowed or even reversed.Most cases of myopia are axial, meaning the axis of the eyeball the distance between the cornea at the front and the light-sensitive retina at the back grows too long. This means that light entering the eye is focused in front of the

Leader and EnvironmentFood production is responsible for more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions. To get everyone the food they need in a warming world, governments worldwide must invest in securing our food systems 13 November 2024 Shutterstock/KzenonThere are two monumental problems with the worlds food system. Firstly, hundreds of millions of people cant afford to buy enough nutritious food to stay healthy. Secondly, it is incredibly destructive. We are still razing rainforests to make way for ranches, and both conventional and organic farms produce all kinds of pollutants, with food systems generating more than a third of greenhouse gases.As the world soars past a 1.5C rise in temperature (see 2024 is set to be the first year that breaches the 1.5C warming limit), things could get much worse. But there is plenty we can do, from eating less meat to reducing food waste (see Is the climate change food crisis even worse than we imagined?). With the amazing advances in genetic technologies in recent years, there is also huge scope to improve the plants and animals that provide our food. We can make them more nutritious, healthier, better able to cope with changing conditions and less susceptible to diseases that are thriving as the world warms. We should also be able to create plants that need less fertiliser and capture more of the suns energy.It is astounding that most countries arent investing heavily in improving cropsAdvertisementThe benefits from all this would be enormous: more food from less land, lower prices, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and less chance of viruses such as H5N1 bird flu causing another pandemic.So it is astounding that most countries arent investing heavily in improving crops. There is some private investment, but those companies are unlikely to make their technologies freely available, slowing their adoption.We are also restricted by the notion that more natural means of farming are better, with opposition to genetically modified (GM) crops making it difficult and expensive to get them approved.This is starting to change, with many countries making it easier for gene-edited crops and animals to get to market, but we need more action and fast.The idea that organic food is better for the planet and GM foods are worse for it is a false narrative that hides a much more unpalatable reality: that continuing as we are will lead to even more destruction and increased hunger.Topics:

A perforated pebble from the Nahal Ein Gev II archaeological site, which may be an ancient spindle whorlLaurent DavinA set of 12,000-year-old pierced pebbles excavated in northern Israel may be the oldest known hand-spinning whorls a textile technology that may have ultimately helped inspire the invention of the wheel.Serving as a flywheel at the bottom of a spindle, whorls allowed people to efficiently spin natural fibres into yarns and thread to create clothing and other textiles. The newly discovered stone tools represent early axle-based rotation technology thousands of years before the first carts, says Talia Yashuv at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. AdvertisementWhen you look back to find the first vehicle wheels 6000 years ago, its not like it just came out of nowhere, she says. Its important to look at the functional evolution of how transportation and the wheel evolved.Yashuv and her colleague Leore Grosman, also at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, studied 113 partially or fully perforated stones at the Nahal Ein Gev II site, an ancient village just east of the Sea of Galilee. Archaeologists have been uncovering these chalky, predominantly limestone artefacts probably made from raw pebbles along the nearby seashore since 1972.3D scanning revealed that the holes had been drilled halfway through from each side using a flint hand drill, which unlike modern drills leaves a narrow and twisting cone-like shape, says Yashuv. Measuring 3 to 4 centimetres in diameter, the holes generally ran through the pebbles centre of gravity. Keep up with advances in archaeology and evolution with our monthly newsletter.Sign up to newsletterDrilling from both sides would have helped balance the stone for more stable spinning, says Yashuv. Several of the partially perforated stones had holes that were off-centre, suggesting they might have been errors and thrown out.The team suspected that the stones, weighing 9 grams on average, were too heavy and ugly to have been beads and too light and fragile to be used as fishing weights, says Yashuv. Their size, shape and balance around the holes convinced the researchers that the artefacts were spindle whorls.To test their hypothesis, the researchers created replicat whorls using nearby pebbles and a flint drill. Then they asked Yonit Kristal, a traditional craftsperson, to try spinning flax with them.She was really surprised that they worked, because they werent perfectly round, says Yashuv. But really you just need the perforation to be located at the centre of mass, and then its balanced and it works.If the stones are indeed whorls, that could make them the oldest known spinning whorls, she says. A 1991 study on bone and antler artefacts uncovered what may be 20,000-year-old whorls, she adds, but the researchers who examined them suggested the pieces were probably decorative clothing accents. Even so, it is possible that people were using whorls even earlier, using wood or other biological materials that would have since deteriorated.The finding suggests that people were experimenting with rotation technology thousands of years before inventing the pottery wheel and the cart wheel about 5500 years ago and that the whorls probably helped lead to those inventions, says Yashuv.Carole Cheval at Cte dAzur University in Nice, France, is less convinced, however. Whorls work more like a top than a wheel, she explains.And while the artefacts might very well be whorls, the study lacks microscopic data that would reveal traces of use as yarns would have marked the stones over time, Cheval says.Trace analysis was beyond the scope of the current study, says Yashuv.Ideally, researchers studying ancient whorls would be skilled in spinning themselves which the study authors were not, says Cheval. It really changes the way you think about your archaeological finds, she says.Journal reference:PLOS One DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0312007 Topics:archaeology

Air pollution is hard to avoid, particularly for city dwellersRon Adar/AlamyAir pollution is increasingly being linked to a raised risk of eczema, with the latest study showing a clear relationship between the exposure and the skin condition.Vehicles and power plants release pollutant particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less, called PM2.5. These have previously been linked to a higher risk of eczema, which is thought to be the result of an over-active immune system causing inflammation that makes skin dry and itchy. AdvertisementTo gather more evidence, Jeffrey Cohen at the Yale School of Medicine and his colleagues analysed the medical records of more than 280,000 people, who were mostly in their 50s and took part in the All of Us Research Program. This collects health data from a diverse group of people in the US, with an emphasis on those who are usually underrepresented in research, such as ethnic minorities.The researchers also looked at average PM2.5 levels where these people lived, using data collected in 2015 by the Centre for Air, Climate, and Energy Solutions in Virginia.They then compared PM2.5 levels in 788 locations across the US against eczema cases, which were diagnosed up until mid-2022. They found that for every 10 microgram per cubic metre increase in PM2.5, eczema rates more than doubled. In more polluted areas of the country, there was more eczema, says Cohen. Get the most essential health and fitness news in your inbox every Saturday.Sign up to newsletterThe team accounted for factors that could affect the results, such as ethnicity and whether people smoked or had food allergies.The study brings forward the science by nicely showing a clear correlation in a large population, says Giuseppe Valacchi at North Carolina State University. PM2.5 may trigger the immune system to cause inflammation when it comes into contact with skin, like pollen or dust mites can, says Valacchi. Inhaling it may also play a role, as this can ramp up inflammation around the body, he says.This research should give governments another reason to enforce policies that reduce air pollution, says Cohen. Meanwhile, people living in polluted areas can reduce their risk by wearing long sleeves or staying indoors when pollution levels are particularly high, says Valacchi.Journal reference:PLoS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310498 Topics:

Measuring the massive coralInigo San Felix/National Geographic SocietyIn the south-west Pacific, off the coast of one of the tropical Solomon Islands, a giant structure beneath the waters surface has just been identified as the worlds largest known coral.Visiting the remote site in mid-October, a team of scientists and film-makers from National Geographic thought the object was so large, it must be the remains of a shipwreck.But when underwater cinematographer Manu San Flix jumped into the water to take a closer look, he was astonished by what he saw.AdvertisementI remember perfectly just jumping and looking down, and I was surprised, he told reporters during a briefing. Instead of a shipwreck, San Flix had stumbled upon the largest coral ever discovered. It is enormous, he said. The size is close to the size of a cathedral.The coral, which lies a few hundred metres off the eastern coast of Malaulalo Island, has been identified as the species Pavona clavus. It measures 34 metres wide by 32 metres long, making it larger than a blue whale, and is thought to be 300 years old. A monthly celebration of the biodiversity of our planets animals, plants and other organisms.Sign up to newsletterThe discovery was a happy accident, says Enric Sala of National Geographics Pristine Seas project, whichaims to inspire governments to protect ocean ecosystems through exploration andresearch. It is by far the largest single coral colony ever discovered, easily beating the previous record holder a giant Porites colony found in American Samoa in 2019, which was 22.4 metres in diameter and 8 metres in height.Over the past two years, record-breaking ocean temperatures have triggered a wave of coral bleaching events across the world. But while other reefs around the Solomon Islands are showing signs of bleaching, Sala says the huge P. clavus coral is looking healthy. It is a vital habitat for ocean life, he says, providing shelter and food for fish, shrimp, worms and crabs. Its like a big patch of old growth forest.But the coral isnt immune from ecological threats, from local pollution and overfishing to global climate change. Sala says he would like to see more marine protected areas (MPAs) established to shield marine life from local pollution, alongside global action to tackle climate change. Protecting the reef cannot make the water cooler, cannot prevent the warming of the ocean, he says. We need to fix that, we need to reduce carbon emissions. But MPAs can help us buy time by making the reefs more resilient.Topics:

Eurasian reed warblers migrate between Europe and AfricaAGAMI Photo Agency / Alamy StockMany migratory birds use Earths magnetic field as a compass, but some can also use information from that field to determine more or less where they are on a mental map.Eurasian reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) appear to calculate their geographical position by drawing data from different distances and angles between magnetic fields and the Earths shape. The findings suggest that the birds use magnetic information as a sort of GPS that tells them not only where to go, but where they are initially, says Richard Holland at Bangor University in the UK. AdvertisementWhen we travel, we have a map which tells us where we are and we have a compass, which tells us which way to go to reach our destination, he says. We dont think birds have quite this level of accuracy or degree of knowledge of the whole Earth. Even so, they see how magnetic cues change as they move along their normal path or even if theyre far displaced from that path.Scientists have known for decades that migratory birds rely on cues from the sun, the stars and Earths magnetic field to determine which direction to head towards. But figuring out direction using a compass is markedly different from knowing where in the world they are, and scientists still debate about whether and how birds figure out their current map position.Florian Packmor at Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park Authority in Germany suspected birds could detect detailed aspects of the magnetic field to determine their global position. Specifically, he thought they might use magnetic inclination the changing angle of Earths surface relative to its magnetic lines and magnetic declination the difference in direction between the geographic and magnetic poles to understand more precisely where they are located in the world. A monthly celebration of the biodiversity of our planets animals, plants and other organisms.Sign up to newsletterTo test that theory, Packmor, Holland and their colleagues captured 21 adult reed warblers on their migration route from Europe to Africa in Illmitz, Austria. There, they placed the birds temporarily in outdoor aviaries, where the researchers used a Helmholtz coil to interfere with magnetic fields. They artificially altered the inclination and declination in a way that corresponded to a position in Neftekamsk, Russia, 2600 kilometres away. Thats way out of their direction, says Packmor.The team then put the birds in a special cage for studying migratory instincts and asked two independent researchers who were unaware of the changes in magnetic field to record which way the birds headed. In the modified magnetic field situations, most of the birds showed a clear penchant for flying west-southwest, as though they were trying to return to their migration route from Russia. By contrast, the same birds wanted to fly south-southeast out of Austria when the magnetic field was unmodified.This suggests that the birds believed that they were no longer in Austria, but in Russia based on their magnetic inclination and declination alone, says Packmor.Of course, they dont know its Russia, but its too far north and east of where they should be, says Holland. And then at that point, they look at their compass system to work out how to fly south and west.However, we still dont fully understand the neurological mechanisms that enable birds to sense these aspects of Earths magnetic field.This is an important step in understanding how magnetic maps of songbirds and in particular, reed warblers work, says Nikita Chernetsov at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg, who was not involved in the study.While the research confirms reed warblers rely on these magnetic fields for positioning, it doesnt mean that all birds do so, he adds. Not all birds work the same way.The birds were released two to three weeks after the study, at which time they could continue their normal migration, Packmor and Holland say. Indeed, one of the birds they studied was captured a second time a year later, meaning the teams research did not prevent it from migrating successfully.Journal reference:Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.1363Topics:

Wildfires in the tropics drove some increase in CO2 emissions but the bulk was driven by burning fossil fuelsCarl De Souza/AFP/Getty ImagesCarbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels in 2024 are set to blow past last years record levels, dashing hopes this year will see the planet-warming emissions peak.Reducing emissions is more urgent than ever and theres only one way to do it: massively reduce fossil emissions, says Pierre Friedlingstein at the University of Exeter, UK. AdvertisementThat is according to the latest Global Carbon Budget report, a preliminary accounting of CO2 emissions to date with projections to the end of the year, produced by Friedlingstein and his colleagues. It was released at the COP29 summit now underway in Azerbaijan, where countries aim to set new financial targets to address climate change.Last year, some researchers were forecasting a peak in emissions in 2024, but the report finds human-caused CO2 emissions are set to reach a record 41.6 gigatonnes in 2024, a 2 per cent rise on 2023s record. Almost 90 per cent of that total consists of emissions from burning fossil fuels. The rest is from changes in the land driven mostly by deforestation and wildfires.At 0.8 per cent, the growth rate of fossil fuel emissions is half that of 2023, although it remains higher than the average rate over the past decade. [The slower rate] is a good sign, but its still miles away from where we need to get, says Friedlingstein. Get a dose of climate optimism delivered straight to your inbox every month.Sign up to newsletterDespite a long-term downward trend, projected emissions from land use change also increased this year, largely due to drought-driven wildfires in the tropics. Some of the increase is also down to a collapse of the carbon land sink in 2023, which usually removes about a quarter of our annual CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. This sink declined by more than 40 per cent last year and the early part of 2024 as global temperatures spiked under the influence of El Nio.2023 is an incredible demonstration of what can happen in a warmer world when we had peak records in global temperatures combined with El Nio droughts and fires, says Pep Canadell at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia, a co-author of the report. Put all these things together and last year we had almost a third less help removing atmospheric CO2 by the worlds forests than we have had over the last decade.While this also added to emissions in 2024, the researchers expect this land carbon sink has mostly recovered as the warming influence of El Nio has faded. Its not a long-term collapse, says Friedlingstein.The report finds CO2 emissions in China, which generates nearly a third of the global total, are only projected to increase by 0.2 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023. Canadell says that because of the large margin of error in this projection of Chinas emissions, it is actually possible they have stayed steady or gone down. Indias emissions also increased at a slower rate than last year, rising by just under 5 per cent. In the US and the EU, emissions continued to decline, albeit at a much slower rate than last year.Hot temperatures that boost electricity demand to power air conditioning are also a key reason why fossil fuel emissions have continued to rise despite the massive build-out of renewables in 2024, says Neil Grant at Climate Analytics, a think tank in Germany. Whether due to electric vehicles, data centres or manufacturing, most people have been caught a bit surprised by the level of electricity demand this year, he says.If emissions continue at this level, the report finds that within six years the world will exceed its remaining carbon budget to limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, and will exceed the budget to stay within 2C warming within 27 years.We have to accelerate, accelerate, accelerate, accelerate the transition to renewable energy, says Candell. Climate change is like a slippery slope that we can just keep falling down. We need to slam on the brakes as hard as we can so we can stop falling.Topics:

Bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice were used to estimate past temperaturesaldiami/Andreas Alexander/AlamyHumans have already caused approximately 1.5C of warming since the start of the industrial revolution, according to new estimates based on temperature data gleaned from bubbles of air trapped in ice.Measurements of human-caused global warming generally use the period from 1850 to 1900 as the pre-industrial baseline, since this is when temperature records began. 2024 is almost certain to be the first year where average temperatures rose more than 1.5C above this baseline. This data for a single year is influenced by naturally occurring factors such as a strong El Nio event, which pushed up global temperatures. AdvertisementOnce this natural variability is removed, scientists think humanity alone has caused 1.31C of warming since the industrial revolution. But by 1850, the industrial revolution was already well under way, with fossil fuel-powered engines in use around the world.Andrew Jarvis at Lancaster University and Piers Forster at the University of Leeds, both in the UK, set out to establish a new pre-industrial baseline using data from Antarctic ice core samples. The duo analysed the composition of air bubbles trapped in ice cores to establish the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere during the period from AD 13 to 1700, before humans had any meaningful impact on atmospheric temperatures. They then used this CO2 data to establish global mean temperatures during the same period, assuming a linear relationship between CO2 and temperature increase.Using this new pre-1700 baseline, humanity had caused 1.49C of warming by 2023, meaning the 1.5C level has now in effect been reached, the team write in a paper reporting the findings. We have provided a new, scientifically defensible way of coming up with a pre-industrial baseline against which we are measuring the warming, Jarvis told reporters in a press briefing. Get a dose of climate optimism delivered straight to your inbox every month.Sign up to newsletterJarvis says the new method can also help reduce uncertainty around temperature estimates based on the current 1850-1900 baseline, which is used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Using ice core data to establish the 1850-1900 baseline, the team says humans have caused 1.31C of warming. That is in line with existing central estimates, but with a vastly reduced uncertainty range, the team points out.The problem with just looking at surface temperature observations is that the further back in time you go, they become more uncertain, says Forster. We can be far more certain than before that we are currently at about 1.3C.Jarvis and Forster hope their new method will be adopted by scientists and policy-makers as the main way of judging humanitys progress against global climate goals. I do think there is still scope for the policy community and the science community to rethink the pre-industrial baseline, said Jarvis. We know that there is warming baked into the 1850-1900 estimate, simply because that is not the beginning of the industrial revolution. We are offering a way out there, to a much more scientifically secure baseline to operate from.However, the new method may not be future-proof. The linear relationship between CO2 concentrations and global temperatures may falter as climate change advances, for example if we trigger so-called tipping points in Earth systemsthat cause a cascade of warming events.The new method also doesnt change the climate change effects being felt on the ground, says Forster. The impacts today we are experiencing of people being killed in Spain and by these hurricanes the impacts are exactly the same if you call that 1.3C above pre-industrial levels or if you call that 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The impacts are the impacts.Richard Betts at the Met Office, the UKs weather service, says the new method provides a clear and simple way to give up-to-date estimates of the current level of human-induced global warming. That is, in part, because it is able to produce a real time estimate for human-driven warming rather than relying on a rolling 10-year average like current estimates.He says the method will be useful to provide a more up-to-date picture of the current level of warming for policy-makers, but warned that changing the baseline used in assessments could be seen as moving the goalposts for climate action. Even without changing the baseline, its clear that current warming is much closer to 1.5C than expected from using an out-of-date, 10-year average, he says.Journal referenceNature Geoscience DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01580-5Topics:

The northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) brings unexpected ecosystem benefitsAll Canada Photos/AlamyTwo years after Mount St Helens erupted in 1980, a team of researchers helicoptered in a gopher to the ash-covered landscape. Decades later, the activity of that single gopher burrowing for a single day may have helped the decimated ecosystem regrow by boosting the diversity of soil fungi.Theres something to be said about learning lessons from the gophers, says Mia Maltz at the University of Connecticut, who has used the eruption to understand how forests might recover from other stresses including wildfires and

Ice collapsing into the water at Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, ArgentinaR.M. Nunes/AlamyEven a few years delay in reaching net-zero emissions will have repercussions for hundreds or even thousands of years, leading to warmer oceans, more extensive ice loss in Antarctica and higher temperatures around the world.Nations around the world have collectively promised to prevent more than 2C of global warming, a goal that can only be achieved by reaching net-zero emissions effectively ending almost all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions before the end of the century. But once that hugely challenging goal

Ice collapsing into the water at Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park, ArgentinaR.M. Nunes/AlamyEven a few years delay in reaching net-zero emissions will have repercussions for hundreds or even thousands of years, leading to warmer oceans, more extensive ice loss in Antarctica and higher temperatures around the world.Nations around the world have collectively promised to prevent more than 2C of global warming, a goal that can only be achieved by reaching net-zero emissions effectively ending almost all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions before the end of the century. But once that hugely challenging goal

Offering emotional support should, of course, be central to any good relationshipSkynesher/Getty ImagesAfter one of my recent book talks, an audience member described a friend who was having a hard time. Every conversation turned to the stress the friend was experiencing at work or the marital problems she was facing at home. I want to be there for her, my new acquaintance told me. But I dont seem to be helping.Offering emotional support should, of course, be central to any good relationship and until recently, I thought that patient listening was the best help that someone

In Rumours, world leaders tackle a crisis asonly they know howBleecker StreetRumoursDirectors: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen JohnsonOn show in the US; on general release in the UK from 6 DecemberLeaders of the G7 nations gather on an estate outside the German village of Dankerode in Saxony-Anhalt to thrash out a joint communiqu on an unspecified (but clearly terminal) global crisis.They used to be the G6 but then Canada joined. No ones too sure about Canada. Its prime minister, Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis), keeps having to run off for a good cry. Cate

LifeAn analysis of thousands of cognitive tests carried out by chimpanzees finds that the number of spectators influenced their performance in different ways depending on the difficulty of the task 8 November 2024 A chimpanzee tackling a number test on a touch screenAkiho MuramatsuThe pressure of a watching audience can have positive or negative effects on human performance, and it turns out the same is true of our closest relatives.Christen Lin at Kyoto University, Japan, and his colleagues tested a group of six chimpanzees housed at the universitys primate research institute on three numerical tasks with varying difficulty. AdvertisementIn the first task, the numbers 1 to 5 appeared on the screen in random locations and the chimps simply had to touch the numbers in the correct order to get a food reward.In the second task, the numbers werent adjacent: for example, 1, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 15 might appear on the screen. Again, the chimps had to press the numbers from smallest to largest in order to receive a reward.Finally, in the hardest test, when the first number in the sequence was pressed, the rest of the numbers were hidden behind chequered squares on the screen. This meant the chimps had to memorise the location of the numbers in order to press them in the correct order. A monthly celebration of the biodiversity of our planets animals, plants and other organisms.Sign up to newsletterThe chimps were tested on the tasks thousands of times over a six-year period with varying audiences from one to eight human observers, some familiar to the chimps and others who were new.When the task was easy, the chimps performed worse when there were more people watching. But on the most difficult task, all six of the chimps did better as the size of the audience grew.It was very surprising to find a significant increase in performance as human experimenter numbers increased, because we might expect more humans being present to be more distracting, says Lin. However, the results suggest that this may actually motivate them to perform even better.For the easiest task, the humans may be distracting to them, but for the most difficult task it is possible that the humans are a stressor that actually motivates them to perform better.Team member Shinya Yamamoto, also at Kyoto University, says they were very surprised to find this effect in the chimps.Such an audience effect is often thought to be unique to humans, who live in a reputation-based normative society, where we sometimes perform better in front of an audience and sometimes perform worse than we expected, he says. But our study shows that this audience effect may have evolved in the ape lineage before the development of this kind of normative society.Yamamoto says it is difficult and sometimes dangerous to draw direct implications for humans from non-human studies. But, in a casual way, we may be able to ease the tension of those who are extremely nervous in public by saying chimpanzees are the same!Miguel Llorente at the University of Girona, Spain, suggests further studies could explore how the audience effect is related to chimpanzees individual personalities.It would also be fascinating to explore these effects with chimpanzee audiences to understand more fully how these dynamics play out in a natural social context in order to generalise these results to the natural behaviour of chimpanzees, he says.Journal reference:iScience DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.111191Topics:animals

A robot dog chased down a ball and clambered over obstacles after learning the skills from images and video generated by artificial intelligence.Ge Yang at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues developed their training platform LucidSim by taking a popular computer simulation software that follows the principles of real-world physics and inserting a generative AI model to produce artificial environments such as a stone pathway.They also used OpenAIs ChatGPT to generate thousands of text descriptions that were fed into the

Oil and water are difficult to separate without leaving some impuritiesAbaca Press/AlamyMixtures of oil and water can be efficiently separated by pumping them into thin channels between semipermeable membranes, paving the way to cheaper and cleaner ways to deal with industrial waste. Experimental prototypes managed to recover both oil and water with a purity greater than 99.9 per cent.Various methods already exist to split such mixtures into component parts, including spinning them in a centrifuge, mechanically skimming oil from the surface and splitting them with chemicals, electrical charges or semipermeable membranes, which allow some substances through, but not others. Membranes are the simplest method, but are currently imperfect, leaving behind a stubborn mix of oily water or watery oil. AdvertisementNow, Hao-Cheng Yang at Zhejiang University in China and his colleagues have developed a more efficient method that uses two membranes one hydrophobic layer that allows oil to pass, and one hydrophilic layer that allows water to pass in order to cleanly separate both.Yang says the idea has been tried before with less-than-impressive results. This is because as oil or water is removed from the mixture, the concentration of the components changes, making the membranes less efficient.To overcome this, the team pumped the mixture into a thin channel between the two layers. In this confined space, droplets of oil are more likely to collide and accumulate, which means they can then be removed more efficiently by the hydrophobic membrane. This, in turn, increases the ratio of water in the mixture, creating a beneficial feedback loop that ensures both clean oil and water are removed continually. The latest science news delivered to your inbox, every day.Sign up to newsletterWhen we put the membranes [close] together, they will affect each other, making the process continue, says Yang. Theres a feedback between the two processes.In tests, the researchers found that total oil recovery increases from just 5 per cent to 97 per cent and water recovery increases from 19 per cent to 75 per cent as the channel width is narrowed from 125 millimetres to 4 millimetres. The purity of the recovered oil and water is more than 99.9 per cent, with only small amounts of waste left, says Yang.The team is in talks with industry and Yang believes that the process is so simple that it could easily be scaled up to suitable levels within a few years.Journal referenceScience DOI: 10.1126/science.adt2513Topics:chemistry

Hairy animals including mice and dogs shake themselves dryatikinka2/Getty ImagesIf you have ever been close to a dog after it has gone for a swim, you have probably been sprayed with water flinging from its fur. We now know the brain pathway that causes animals to rapidly wiggle themselves dry a phenomenon known as the wet dog shake.At least 12 different types of nerve cells help hairy mammals like mice and dogs feel physical sensations, such as temperature changes or touch. Yet it wasnt clear which of these neurons sense irritating substances that animals want to shake

Rupert GruberHiding somewhere in the gloom of space, there is a gigantic asteroid on a collision course with our planet. If we dont spot it and somehow thwart its arrival, it will pierce Earths atmosphere at 60,000 kilometres per hour and hammer into the ground, vaporising anything it touches.With millions of asteroids hurtling through the inner solar system, the threat is inevitable: sooner or later, an impact will happen. But that doesnt mean Earth has to be a sitting duck. A global community is engrossed in planetary defence, carefully planning how to fend off these extraterrestrial interlopers when they show up or at least minimise the carnage.Among other things, this work has involved scanning the sky for threats and testing missions to knock asteroids off course. But it also includes a surprising amount of role-playing, where teams war-game asteroid impact scenarios. In the real world, we havent really gotten to this stage where we actually have to design and build missions, so thats why we need these exercises, says NASAs Paul Chodas, who runs many of the role-plays. They make you think about details that you would not otherwise think about.Over the coming paragraphs, you will be in the hot seat in a choose-your-own adventure version of one of these role-playing games. You will decide how to react as the asteroid bears down upon us. Whether you opt to slam a spacecraft into it, use sunlight-absorbing paint to shift its path, or simply blow it to smithereens, you will find we have more options

Covid-19 restrictions helped stem SARS-Cov-2, but also had other consequencesAlex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA/AlamyChronic pain has become more common since covid-19 emerged and long covid only accounts for some of the rise.The coronavirus was first identified in December 2019, which led to lockdowns being implemented around the world within months. Researchers initially warned that such strict restrictions could lead to chronic pain due to reduced access to healthcare, more sedentary lifestyles and possibly lingering symptoms of the infection.But scientists previously found almost no

Leader and SpaceAverting an asteroid strike will need many of the same skills we must hone to tackle climate change and future pandemics 6 November 2024 Andrew Cribb/AlamyWhen it comes to natural disasters, most are impossible to predict more than a few months or even days ahead of time you cant say an earthquake is going to hit in two years, lets prepare. However, one of the few for which we can be truly ready is an asteroid strike.While nobody has found any large asteroids on a collision course with Earth yet, scientists, engineers and policy-makers are working on planetary defence plans for when we do. Disaster-averting techniques are already being tested, like giving asteroids a bump to change their trajectory, as NASAs Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission did successfully in 2022.One surprisingly useful tool in the planetary defence tool belt is running role-playing games, which can reveal the stumbling blocks that could scupper even the best laid plans. Paul Chodas at NASA, who runs some of these exercises, says they uncover problems we never would have thought of otherwise. In our feature, If an asteroid were heading towards Earth, could you avert disaster?, you can try such a game for yourself.AdvertisementCompared with other existential threats, the risks from an asteroid are relatively smallIt should come as no surprise that factors like an incoming space rocks size and how early we spot it play a big role in whether we will successfully avoid disaster, but so too does our ability to collaborate on a global scale and effectively communicate the risks of different options. These are important lessons that go beyond just defending ourselves against asteroids.Compared with other existential threats, the risks from an asteroid heading our way are relatively small. Climate change is already happening. Pandemics have occurred regularly throughout human history and are made more likely by our warming planet. We know these come with technical challenges, like the development and rollout of green technologies, but the social ones are just as important.It is only with effective global collaboration and communication that humanity can tackle its biggest problems. That is just as true in an asteroid role-playing game as it is in reality.Topics:

Certain knots, like this trefoil, can be formed from vortices in a quantum fluidLogin/ShutterstockBy manipulating a quantum fluid, researchers could form liquid knots that never unravel. These could help us shed light on odd quantum objects from the dawn of the universe.When tiny whirlpools called vortices form in a fluid, they can make loops that can then be knotted like a loop of string. But while a string can form knots that wont unravel without the help of scissors, knotted vortices in a fluid break free more easily. They can explode into a diffuse swarm of

Sheep skulls modified by ancient Egyptians so that their horns grew upward instead of outwardB. De CupereSheep with deformed horns are among the more mysterious animal remains discovered at an ancient Egyptian burial site dating back to around 3700 BC. They also represent the oldest physical evidence of humans modifying the horns of livestock.The sheep were deliberately made special by castration, says Wim Van Neer at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. In addition, their horns were directed upward, and in one case, the horns were removed.

The winning entry, Calcium rainbowCharlotte Buckley, University of Strathclyde, British Heart Foundation Reflections of ResearchThe muscle cells lining an artery resemble a stained glass window in this image, the winner of the British Heart Foundations annual Reflections of Research competition. Scientists funded by the charity submitted the most striking pictures from their work on heart and circulatory conditions.Charlotte Buckley at the University of Strathclyde, UK, who scooped first prize, is exploring how cells in artery walls respond to calcium levels and how this leads to high blood pressure, stroke and dementia. A fluorescent dye shows calcium levels at different times in a recording: blue shows this mineral released from stores inside cells at the start, while later emissions run through purple, pink, red, orange, yellow and then white. AdvertisementThe powerhouse of lifeAgustina Salis Torres, University of Edinburgh, British Heart Foundation Reflections of ResearchAnother image, a shortlisted entry by Agustina Salis Torres at the University of Edinburgh, UK, also shows muscle cells that line blood vessels. The nuclei, which contain genetic material, are shown in blue, and calcium is labelled in green. Mitochondria, the energy-generating parts of the cells, are stained yellow and orange.Igniting a new wave of AF researchAaron Johnston, University of Oxford, British Heart Foundation Reflections of Research Get the most essential health and fitness news in your inbox every Saturday.Sign up to newsletterThe image above shows a cell collected from the heart of a person with an irregular heartbeat due to a condition called atrial fibrillation (AF). The glowing strands of orange and yellow highlight a protein called filamin-A that helps cells respond to each other, and which becomes altered in the condition. The blue oval shows the nucleus of the cell. Aaron Johnston at the University of Oxford, who captured the image, hopes that understanding how cells change during AF could lead to new treatments.Blooming developmentVictoria Rashbrook, University of Oxford, British Heart Foundation Reflections of ResearchVictoria Rashbrook at the University of Oxford, who is studying how pregnancy and infant health affects heart development, took this image of a developing mouse embryo halfway through pregnancy. Resembling a tulip in bloom, the pink petals develop into the head, the green stem expands to form the body and the green roots depict the placenta.The Heartbeat of Tooth! Bridging Oral and Cardio HealthSusanth Alapati, University of Aberdeen, British Heart Foundation Reflections of ResearchSusanth Alapati at the University of Aberdeen, UK, produced this image to highlight how poor dental hygiene can cause bacteria to enter the bloodstream, and this in turn can ramp up inflammation in the heart and arteries, raising the risk of heart disease. Staphylococcus bacteria that live in the mouth were used to construct the shape of a tooth, while the heart was formed using gum bacteria called Porphyromonas. Alapati is researching links between oral and heart health to find ways to prevent heart disease.Topics:The heart

LifeExperiments where vampire bats were made to run on a treadmill have revealed how they extract energy from protein in their latest blood meal 6 November 2024 Experiments with vampire bats running on treadmills have revealed they have a highly unusual method of getting energy from protein, due to their specialised diet.Most mammals get the bulk of their energy for movement from fats and stored sugars, but the three species of vampire bats subsist on a diet of blood drawn from their victims, which is rich in proteins but low in fats and sugars. How their metabolism works is therefore unclear, as amino acids, which make up proteins, typically supply less than 10 per cent of animals energy during exercise. AdvertisementTo learn more about their metabolism, Kenneth Welch and Giulia Rossi at the University of Toronto in Canada studied 24 adult common vampire bats (Desmodusrotundus) captured in Belize. The bats were fed on cows blood containing amino acids with labelled carbon atoms, then placed on a treadmill in a small box.The bats metabolic rate was measured by tracking oxygen intake and carbon dioxide expiration while they ran on the treadmill at speeds of up to 30 metres per minute. By analysing the carbon isotopes in the exhaled breath, the researchers found that they were drawing energy from their recent meal rather than stored fats or sugars.Welch conceived of the experiment 20 years ago while researching how hummingbirds made use of the sugar in nectar, and discovering that there was a similarity with nectar-feeding bats. He knew that the tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans) fed on blood and was unusual in that it didnt make use of fats or carbohydrates, but instead used proteins, and wondered if vampire bats would be similar.But while hummingbirds and some nectar bats can hover in flight, making experiments possible without a large and expensive wind tunnel, vampire bats cannot. However, they do have the ability to run at speed, which they use to track prey on the ground, so Welch and Rossi could put them through their paces on a treadmill instead.Drawing most energy from amino acids is unusual in the animal kingdom, confined to blood-feeding insects, emperor penguins during long periods of fasting and hibernating bears.Whats different here is that this seems to be what this animal is going to do all year round, every day when it feeds, and that its making use of the protein in that blood meal that it ingested just minutes before, says Welch. Thats what really separates these animals from most of the rest of us.While most animals can turn nutrients into sugars and fats and store them away, vampire bats have evolved a different strategy that leaves them far more susceptible to starvation in fact, they are at risk of starvation after only 24 hours without feeding, says Welch. To compensate for this, they have developed strong social bonds and will share meals with each other when one member of the group has failed to find food, regurgitating some of their own blood meal into another bats mouth to sustain it.Journal reference:Biology Letters DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0453Topics:animals

Bitter/iStockThere are few things more irritating in everyday life than getting something stuck between your teeth. Thankfully, we can reach for a toothpick and it seems our ancient ancestors did the same. In fact, a fragment of a 1.2-million-year-old toothpick is perhaps the earliest direct evidence we have of hominins using plants as tools.Our ancient ancestors probably made frequent use of implements made from plants. But finding evidence of this is extremely tough because botanical materials are so quick to rot away. This means the archaeological record of human tool use is deeply skewed towards the much hardier stone.All this suggests that the origins of human technology could have been profoundly misunderstood.Stone AgeThe conventional view is it all started with the first stone tools and the dawn of the Stone Age over 3 million years ago. But what if, even before that, there was a botanical age, one based on woodworking and weaving of plant materials? For some researchers, it is absurd not to think that plants would be part of the story. Perishable material culture is an essential element in our evolutionary past, says Linda Hurcombe at the University of Exeter in the UK.Now, we are finally getting a clearer view of this lost age. New techniques are making it possible to find traces of plant-based tools that would otherwise have been missed. And by studying the way modern primates use plants,

Breast cancer cells that have metastasised to the liverConnect Images / AlamyThe number of cancer deaths worldwide is expected to nearly double by 2050, largely due to increases in low and middle-income countries.Habtamu Bizuayehu at the University of Queensland in Australia and his team made the discovery by looking at recent figures for cases and death rates for 36 types of cancer in 185 countries from the Global Cancer Observatory database. They then projected future cases and deaths by applying these rates to the 2050 population predictions from the United Nations Development Programme. AdvertisementThey found that the total number of cancer cases worldwide is expected to grow by nearly 77 per cent between 2022 and 2050, which would mean an additional 15.3 million cases in 2050 on top of the 20 million in 2022. Global cancer deaths are also projected to rise by almost 90 per cent during this period, resulting in 8.8 million more in 2050 compared with 2022, in which 9.7 million people died from the disease.The largest increases are expected in countries with low or middle rankings on the UNs Human Development Index, which is based on average life expectancy, education level and income per person. Cancer cases and deaths are, on average, anticipated to nearly triple by 2050 in countries with a low score, such as Niger and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, countries with a very high score such as Norway are projected to see cases and deaths increase, on average, by more than 42 per cent and 56 per cent, respectively.This reinforces other evidence that shows cancer cases are trending upwards, says Andrew Chan at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who wasnt involved with the study. Multiple factors are probably driving this, including people living longer, which raises the risk of cancer, he says. However, the work didnt account for the advent of new or more effective treatments.Less-developed countries will probably see the greatest increases due to the so-called Westernisation of populations, says Chan. Some of the habits that we traditionally associate with higher risk of cancer, such as rising rates of obesity and poor diet, are becoming a trend in low and middle-income countries.Journal referenceJAMA Network Open DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.43198Topics:cancer /health/public health

On Makemake, a distant dwarf planet, a day lasts 22 hoursESO/L. Calada/Nick RisingerOn a small dwarf planet called Makemake, astronomers have seen signs of surprising temperature changes. These could indicate that the tiny world, which is about 45 times further from the sun than Earth, has an active icy volcano.Csaba Kiss at Konkoly Observatory in Hungary and his colleagues used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study Makemake for less than an hour. They observed a spike in infrared

olga Yastremska/AlamyWhether you are roasting a chicken in the oven, browning onions in a frying pan or choosing a spread for your toast, oils are at the heart of our culinary activity.We have a dizzying array of choice. From sunflower to flaxseed, avocado to coconut, around 30 varieties of oil are now used for cooking. Your decision on which to use could have a profound effect on your health, with consequences for your cholesterol, blood pressure and risk of cardiovascular disease.If you believe the headlines, then palm oil is out, sunflower oil is on shaky ground and there seems no end to the benefits that extra virgin olive oil brings to the table. But are these claims backed up by solid science? And how do the health effects of these products weigh up against their environmental costs?Saturated or unsaturated?First, some chemistry. Cooking oils contain fats, which are made from long chains of carbon atoms linked together. Saturated fats, found in red meat and dairy, are so named because each carbon atom is linked to the next by a single bond. The remaining electrons of each carbon atom are then available to form bonds with hydrogen atoms making the molecule fully saturated with this element. This structure makes these fats very rigid and stable, which is why butter and lard are solid at room temperature.Unsaturated fats, commonly present in plants and oily fish, have at least one double bond between neighbouring carbon atoms, which reduces the number of bonds that can be

A cylinder seal and its design imprinted onto clayFranck Raux 2001 GrandPalaisRmn (Muse du Louvre)The worlds oldest known writing system may have had its origins in the imagery on decorated cylinders used to denote ownership. Some of the symbols on these cylinder seals correspond to those used in proto-cuneiform, a form of proto-writing used in Mesopotamia.The finding indicates that the invention of writing in Mesopotamia was a decentralised process, in which many people across a wide area contributed to the set of symbols used. AdvertisementTheres been this longstanding reconstruction of how writing appeared in Mesopotamia, which is arguably the earliest invention of writing in the world, says Silvia Ferrara at the University of Bologna in Italy. Were retracing the trajectory in a way thats more, I would say, colourful, less straitjacketed.The oldest known true writing system is cuneiform, invented around 3200 BC in Mesopotamia. It was preceded by a simpler system called proto-cuneiform, which was in use from 3350 to 3000 BC.Proto-writing like proto-cuneiform is distinguished by a lack of grammatical rules, which means it cannot convey complex meanings, says Amy Richardson at the University of Reading in the UK, who wasnt involved in the research. For instance, proto-cuneiform can be used to label something as seven bushels of wheat, but only true writing like cuneiform can say seven bushels of wheat will be delivered to you. Keep up with advances in archaeology and evolution with our monthly newsletter.Sign up to newsletterThe origins of proto-cuneiform have often been traced to clay tokens. These came in a variety of shapes, such as discs and spheres, and were often engraved with patterns. The tokens could be pressed into wet clay, creating a symbol. Some of the symbols on the tokens are similar to those found in proto-cuneiform, as documented by Denise Schmandt-Besserat at the University of Texas at Austin in her two-volume book Before Writing in 1992.There is some evidence for a role of tokens in the origin of proto-cuneiform, says Ferrara. But you cannot explain all the signs.Ferrara and her colleagues Kathryn Kelley and Mattia Cartolano, also at the University of Bologna, have instead explored another source of symbols: cylinder seals. These cylindrical objects have patterns and images embossed on them, and leave a rectangular collection of symbols when rolled over sheets of wet clay. The symbols often referred to goods being transported, or to administrators involved in transactions, says Cartolano.Two sides of a proto-cuneiform tabletCDLIThe team examined cylinder seals from a wide area of south-west Asia, including Mesopotamia, that dated to 4400 to 3400 BC. They found several symbols that corresponded to proto-cuneiform symbols.One of the clearest examples that we found is the use of the images of fringed cloth and vessel in a net, says Cartolano. These have well-understood meanings: they refer to the transport of goods. And they are found both on cylinder seals and proto-cuneiform tablets.The idea that the symbols on cylinder seals led to some of the symbols in proto-cuneiform was previously suggested by Holly Pittman at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in a 1994 book chapter and developed in later publications. I am gratified that, 30 years after I first proposed the fundamental role of seal imagery in the origins of proto-cuneiform script, that a new generation of scholars have taken up my idea and, with their expertise in cuneiform script, have put details to my argument, says Pittman. She adds that in the 1990s her idea was dismissed without serious consideration.I find it to be very convincing, says Richardson. There does seem to be a really neat correlation in the particular examples that theyre illustrating in this article. Her own research has found that cylinder seals were also used to record interactions between cities.This doesnt mean that tokens didnt play a role. I think theres still some strong arguments to make that those tokens really are part of the foundation of abstraction, says Richardson. In particular, they seem to have been important for the development of counting systems.If proto-cuneiform really did arise in this hodge-podge way, drawn from tokens, cylinder seals and possibly other sources, it may tell us something about who was inventing it, says Ferrara. There is evidence for making a claim that the invention of writing in Mesopotamia was, in fact, much more decentralised than we think, she says. While powerful people in the major city of Uruk no doubt played a role, perhaps so did other administrators and tradespeople scattered over the region. I think theres evidence for having a more widespread and more distributed prompt to writing, she says.Writing was first used for administration, not for storytelling. Those first written records tend to be about trying to organise materials, goods, people, things, says Richardson. Its very much about trying to find ways of creating a social system.Journal reference:Antiquity DOI: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.165 Topics:archaeology

Police stand guard in front of a hotel a day ahead of the COP16 United Nations biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia, on 19 OctoberFernando Vergara/AP/AlamyBiodiversity loss is a crisis and it is now clearer than ever that the world is not moving fast enough to fix it. The COP16 summit in Cali, Colombia, fizzled out in overtime last weekend, with too few countries still in attendance to agree on a global plan to halt the decline of nature.Unfortunately, too many countries and UN officials came to Cali without the urgency and level of ambition needed to secure outcomes at COP16 to address our species most urgent existential issue, says Brian ODonnell at the Campaign for Nature, an environmental advocacy group. AdvertisementSigns that progress was lacking were clear from the outset of the meeting, with nearly all countries missing a deadline to submit official plans on how they will achieve the ambitious biodiversity targets set two years ago at COP15, including protecting 30 per cent of the planets land and oceans by 2030. A few more of these plans trickled in during the two weeks of the summit, including those from large countries like India and Argentina, but most countries strategies are still missing.Going into COP16, it was clear the world is not on track to hit those targets. Since 2020, the area of the planets land and oceans under formal protections has increased just 0.5 per cent, according to a UN report released during the summit. That is a rate far too slow to protect 30 per cent of the planet by the end of the decade.And those protections are sorely needed. A report from the Zoological Society of London and the World Wildlife Fund, released ahead of the summit, found an average 73 per cent decline in the size of vertebrate animal populations since 1970, an increase of 4 percentage points since 2022. Another stark report, which the International Union for the Conservation of Nature released at the meeting, found 38 per cent of the worlds tree species are threatened with extinction. Get a dose of climate optimism delivered straight to your inbox every month.Sign up to newsletterMany lower-income countries said their failure to develop and submit plans by the deadline, let alone to begin carrying them out, was due to a dearth of financial resources. COP16 did see higher-income countries make pledges totalling about $400 million to help these efforts, but funds remain billions short of the $20 billion annual goal promised by 2025.A clear plan to close this finance gap, as well as monitor progress towards the targets, was left unresolved as the talks ran into overtime early Saturday morning. As delegates left, the number of countries in attendance dwindled below the minimum number required to make decisions, and the meeting was suspended without reaching a resolution. The agenda will be taken up at an interim meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2025.Nature is on life support and by not reaching a strong financial compromise here in Cali, the risk of its collapse increases, says Patricia Zurita at Conservation International, a non-profit environmental organisation.Although COP16s failure to move the needle on finance disappointed observers, the meeting did manage one key agreement: a deal on how to collect revenue from products developed using the planets genetic data. Before the meeting was suspended, countries agreed to urge pharmaceutical and other biotech companies that use such digital sequence information to contribute 0.1 per cent of revenue or 1 per cent of profits to a Cali Fund. This fund will be used to protect the biodiversity that is the source of such genetic data.The deal, which comes after nearly a decade of negotiations, was less sweeping than the African Union and some lower-income countries had hoped, and the fact that it is voluntary means much will depend on how individual countries and companies respond. But UN estimates suggest the fund could raise up to a billion dollars a year for biodiversity. It might raise some, but at nowhere near the scale or speed required, says Pierre du Plessis, a long-time negotiator for the African Union. Ahead of the meeting, he argued in New Scientist that the fund should be much larger.Indigenous people also saw a victory before the meeting was suspended, with the creation of a formal body that will give them a stronger voice in biodiversity negotiations.But the overall mood was dour. A real shame of COP16 is that [debates on] digital sequence information sucked up the last drops of energy and time, says Amber Scholz at the Leibniz Institute DSMZ in Germany.One reason for the apparent lack of urgency is that the world treats climate change and biodiversity loss as two separate issues. The annual global climate summits are better attended and receive far more attention than the biodiversity negotiation only six heads of state attended COP16, compared with the 154 who went to last years climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. That is a problem when the two issues are intertwined: climate change is one of the main threats to biodiversity, and the most biodiverse ecosystems are often also the best at storing carbon.I think the most important thing we need is to change what has been the permanent neglect of biodiversity, especially when compared to climate change, UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres said at the summit. They are all interlinked and indivisible.Topics:

Diffuse gas particles can behave in a way that contradicts a fundamental law of physicsShutterstock / North10Heat always spontaneously flows from a hotter place to a colder one so says the second law of thermodynamics. But within an extremely sparse gas, the opposite may be possible, with heat flowing from cold to hot. This finding could reveal cracks in a foundational law of physics.Given the second law [of thermodynamics] has been known for 150 years, you would imagine that if a counterexample exists, then

Sunrise over rice terraces in Bali, IndonesiaAliaksandr Mazurkevich / AlamyA common sunscreen ingredient, zinc nanoparticles, may help protect rice from heat-related stress, an increasingly common problem under climate change.Zinc is known to play an important role in plant metabolism. A salt form of the mineral is often added to soil or sprayed on leaves as a fertiliser, but this isnt very efficient. Another approach is to deliver the zinc as particles smaller than 100 nanometres, which can fit through microscopic pores in leaves and accumulate in a plant.Researchers have explored such nanoparticle carriers as a way to deliver more nutrients to plants, helping maintain crop yields while reducing the environmental damages of using too much fertiliser. Now Xiangang Hu at Nankai University in China and his colleagues have tested how these zinc oxide nanoparticles affect crop performance under heat wave conditions.AdvertisementThey grew flowering rice plants in a greenhouse under normal conditions and under a simulated heat wave where temperatures broke 37C for six days in a row. Some plants were sprayed with nanoparticles and others werent treated at all.When harvested, the average grain yield of the plants treated with zinc nanoparticles was 22.1 per cent greater than the plants that had not been sprayed, and this rice also had higher levels of nutrients. The zinc was also beneficial without heat wave conditions in fact, in these cases, the difference in yield between treated and untreated plants was even greater. Get a dose of climate optimism delivered straight to your inbox every month.Sign up to newsletterBased on detailed measurements of nutrients in the leaves, the researchers concluded the zinc boosted yields by enhancing enzymes involved in photosynthesis and antioxidants that protect the plants against harmful molecules known as reactive oxygen species.Nanoscale micronutrients have tremendous potential to increase the climate resilience of crops by a number of unique mechanisms related to reactive oxygen species, says Jason White at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.The researchers also found the rice treated with zinc nanoparticles maintained more diversity among the microbes living on the leaves called the phyllosphere which may have contributed to the improved growth.Tests of zinc oxide nanoparticles on other crops like pumpkin and alfalfa have also shown yield increases. But Hu says more research is needed to verify this could benefit other crops.Journal referenceProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2414822121Topics:

The focus is on finance at the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, this month, but countries are a long way from any kind of consensus

James Blake/Falklands Maritime Heritage TrustWhen I first started my fitness journey, I wanted to maximise my workout. If I was going to be sore and sweaty, I figured I might as well make the most of it.Building fitness requires pushing your body to do more activity than it is used to. A good barometer for how hard you are exerting yourself during exercise is therefore the number of calories you burn. So, what exercise uses the most calories? It depends.Research has consistently shown that aerobic exercises

James Fitzjames (Tobias Menzies, left) and John Franklin (Ciarn Hinds)James Blake/Falklands Maritime Heritage TrustThe TerrorAMCShowrunners: David Kajganich, Soo HughIn September, an awful truth was brought to light.Ever since contact was lost with the Franklin expedition, an 1845 attempt by the British Royal Navy to find a path through the Arctics Northwest Passage, historians and scientists have tried to find out what went wrong. Investigations discovered hints of the horrors the sailors may have faced, including pack ice, hypothermia, lead poisoning and starvation. Eventually, the wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, the

Some 47,000 trees in Utahs Fishlake National Forest are in fact a single, ancient organism named PandoGeorge Rose/Getty ImagesThe worlds largest tree has been rigorously dated for the first time, confirming it is at least 16,000 years old.Named Pando, the tree is a quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) with around 47,000 stems connected by a root system that sprawls about 43 hectares in Utahs Fishlake National Forest. It has long been thought to be among the most ancient living things on Earth, but scientists didnt know for certain how old it is.

Have we found a new limit on the universe?kkssr/ShutterstockA newly proposed cosmic speed limit may constrain how fast anything in the universe can grow. Its existence follows from Alan Turings pioneering work on theoretical computer science, which opens the intriguing possibility that the structure of the universe is fundamentally linked to the nature of computation.Cosmic limits arent a new idea. While studying the relationship between space and time, Albert Einstein showed that nothing in the universe can exceed the speed of light, as part of his special theory of relativity. Now, Toby Ord at

A bacteriophage virus can kill microbes, influencing what happens to the carbon their bodies containnobeastsofierce Science/AlamyViruses that infect other microbes may influence the movement of more than a billion tonnes of carbon in soil, according to the first attempt at quantifying their role in one of the planets main carbon stores.While there are still gaps, were understanding that viruses can have a huge impact on soil carbon, says Kirsten Hofmockel at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state.Earths soils are packed with

Mass-shifting particles have finally been spottedLAGUNA DESIGN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYStrange particles that have mass when moving one direction but no mass when moving in another were first theorised more than a decade ago. Now, these mass-shifting particles have been glimpsed in a semimetal exposed to extreme conditions.This [particle] is very bizarre. You can imagine walking on the streets of New York and if you go straight, you are super light, you are massless. But turn 90 degrees east or west, and you become super massive, says

Every time H5N1 infects a mammal, it has a chance to develop mutations that make it more transmissibleAlamy Stock PhotoIts been detected in birds on every continent except Australia, seals in South America, foxes in Canada, as well as poultry, dairy cows and dozens of farm workers who have had contact with them in the US and now the highly infectious H5N1 bird flu virus has jumped to a pig in the US for the first time.This development is, without a doubt, troubling. It affords the virus one of its best opportunities to date to evolve