"Microplastics hinder plant photosynthesis, threatening millions with starvation."

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Microplastics hinder plant photosynthesis, study finds, threatening millions with starvation

1Kby Damian Carrington Environment editor / 1d

Researchers say problem could increase number of people at risk of starvation by 400m in next two decades The pollution of the planet by microplastics is significantly cutting food supplies by damaging the ability of plants to photosynthesise, according to a new assessment. The analysis estimates that between 4% and 14% of the world’s staple crops of wheat, rice and maize is being lost due to the

Nasa’s new Spherex telescope lifts off to map cosmos in unprecedented detail

SpaceX launches NASA's SPHEREx and PUNCH

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by Associated Press / 2h

The $488m Spherex mission aims to explain how galaxies evolved over billions of years Nasa ’s newest space telescope rocketed into orbit on Tuesday to map the entire sky like never before – a sweeping look at hundreds of millions of galaxies and their shared cosmic glow since the beginning of time. SpaceX launched the Spherex observatory from California , putting it on course to fly over Earth’s

Under-eights should not drink slushies containing glycerol, say doctors

Slushy drinks pose health risks

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by Andrew Gregory Health editor / 5h

Study of 21 hospitalisations shows the iced drinks can cause decreased consciousness and low blood sugar Children under eight should not drink slushies containing glycerol, paediatricians have warned. Public health advice on their safety may need revising after a review of the medical notes of 21 children who became acutely unwell shortly after drinking one of the iced drinks, doctors concluded.

Yesterday

The UK’s gamble on solar geoengineering is like using aspirin for cancer | Raymond Pierrehumbert and Michael Mann

by Raymond Pierrehumbert and Michael Mann / 7h

Injecting pollutants into the atmosphere to reflect the sun would be extremely dangerous, but the UK is funding field trials Some years ago in the pages of the Guardian, we sounded the alarm about the increasing attention being paid to solar geoengineering – a barking mad scheme to cancel global heating by putting pollutants in the atmosphere that dim the sun by reflecting some sunlight back to s

More than 60 dinosaur footprints found on boulder that sat at Queensland school for 20 years

200+by Donna Lu Science writer / 7h

One-square-metre slab has one of highest concentrations of fossilised prints documented in Australia, new analysis reveals Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast In a corner of Biloela state high school’s main office sits an unassuming white slab, covered with fossilised dinosaur footprints. New analysis suggests the bou

Australian man survives 100 days with artificial heart in world-first success

First portable artificial heart implanted in Peru

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200+by Natasha May Health reporter / 7h

Sydney surgeons ‘enormously proud’ after patient in his 40s receives the Australian-designed implant designed as a bridge before donor heart Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast An Australian man with heart failure has become the first person in the world to walk out of a hospital with a total artificial heart implant.

MS patients in England to benefit from major roll out of take-at-home pill

NHS to offer take-home MS tablet

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by Andrew Gregory Health editor / 11h

Cladribine tablet for those with active multiple sclerosis will reduce hospital visits and free up appointments Thousands of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in England are to become the first in Europe to benefit from a major roll out of an immunotherapy pill. Current treatments involve regular trips to hospital, drug infusions, frequent injections and extensive monitoring, which add to the

Astronomers discover 128 new moons orbiting Saturn

61by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent / 19h

Planet now has 274 moons, almost twice as many as all the other planets in the solar system combined Astronomers have discovered 128 new moons orbiting Saturn, giving it an insurmountable lead in the running tally of moons in the solar system. Until recently, the “moon king” title was held by Jupiter , but Saturn now has a total of 274 moons, almost twice as many as all the other planets combined

Mystery of Jersey’s huge iron age hoard may have been solved

200+by Dalya Alberge / 1d

Archaeologists identify a possible Celtic settlement on the island and believe the trove was hurriedly transported there The mystery of why the world’s largest iron age Celtic hoard was buried on the south-east coast of Jersey more than 2,000 years ago may have been solved by archaeologists. When about 70,000 silver coins, 11 gold torques and jewellery were unearthed in a field at Le Câtillon in

‘I don’t feel part of society’: how Covid is still taking its toll five years on

100+by Rachel Obordo / 1d

The social, educational and financial impact is still making itself felt, especially for those who continue to mourn Five years ago, on 11 March 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a global pandemic . In the intervening years, more than 7 million people worldwide have been reported to have died from Covid. For most people, life as they remember it before the outbreak has re

Mar 10, 2025

Where has the left’s technological audacity gone? | Leigh Phillips

43by Leigh Phillips / 1d

The belief that technology will usher in a golden age for humanity is in vogue once more with billionaires. But can the left offer its own vision for the future? Techno-optimism – the belief that technology will usher in a golden age for humanity – is in vogue once more. In 2022, a clutch of pseudonymous San Francisco artificial intelligence (AI) scenesters published a Substack post entitled “Eff

The male blue-lined octopus injects females with venom during sex to avoid being eaten, study shows

64by Donna Lu Science writer / 1d

Tetrodotoxin immobilises the female – who is about two to five times bigger than the male – so mating can occur, researchers observed Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Male blue-lined octopuses inject females with venom during sex, paralysing their larger mates to avoid being eaten, new research has found. The blue-

Many life-saving drugs fail for lack of funding. But there’s a solution: desperate rich people

28by Alexander Masters / 1d

Each year, hundreds of potentially world-changing treatments are discarded because scientists run out of cash. But where big pharma or altruists fear to tread, my friend and I have a solution. It’s repugnant, but it will work Twenty miles outside Geneva, beneath the towering magnificence of a mountain called the Rock of Hell, is a long, pleasant road that runs past the Brocher mansion. Set in acr

Mars-a-lago? Did the red planet once have sandy beaches? – podcast

by Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay with Nicola Davis, sound design by Joel Cox, the executive producer is Ellie Bury / 1d

The Mars we know now is arid and dusty, with punishing radiation levels. But, as science correspondent Nicola Davis tells Madeleine Finlay, two new studies add weight to the idea that billions of years ago the red planet was a much wetter place. Nicola explains why researchers now think it was once home to sandy beaches, what a study looking into the type of rust on the planet has revealed about

As Trump attacks US science agencies, ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred ushers in a fresh wave of climate denial in Australia | Adam Morton

84by Adam Morton / 1d

Alfred is being used as the latest front in an ideological war, but facts are relevant to how we prepare for a climate-changed future Want to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter here It’s not a good time for climate science. The Trump administration has sacked more than a thousand staff from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administratio

Nasa announces shuttering of two departments and office of chief scientist

NASA implements workforce reductions

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by Richard Luscombe / 1d

Office of technology, policy and strategy and one covering DEI initiatives were eliminated in line with ‘efficiency’ cuts Nasa announced on Monday it had eliminated the office of its chief scientist and shuttered two other departments including one covering diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA), as Donald Trump’s federal ‘efficiency’ crusade cut deep into the US space agency. The

Starmer facing Reform UK byelection challenge as Mike Amesbury quits as MP after assault conviction – UK politics live

Mark Carney elected Canada’s new prime minister

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25by Andrew Sparrow / 2d

Contest in Runcorn and Helsby will be a challenge for Labour Around 80 Labour MPs could refuse to back government plans to cut billions from the welfare budget, Amy Gibbons and Tony Diver claim in a story for the Daily Telegraph. They report: The Telegraph understands that around 80 Labour MPs – roughly a fifth of the parliamentary party – “won’t tolerate” billions of pounds of welfare cuts set t

Alzheimer’s research centers face Trump-imposed $65m funding delay across the US

400+by Jessica Glenza / 2d

Researchers report difficulties retaining staff as White House cost-cutting stresses US medical research system Major Alzheimer’s disease research centers across the country face a $65m funding gap amid a Trump administration-imposed delay, with at least one struggling to retain highly trained staff. Although courts have ruled a government-wide funding freeze is illegal, the administration has ma

The left needs its own version of techno-optimism | Amana Fontanella-Khan

64by Amana Fontanella-Khan / 2d

We live in dark, depressing and – frankly – terrifying times. Will technology push us over the edge or help us exit our many crises? Today we live in an era defined by crisis. Indeed, we are facing multiple overlapping threats at once: from accelerating climate breakdown to the rise of authoritarianism across the world, we are in a situation that the historian Adam Tooze calls “ polycrisis ”. It

Mar 9, 2025

Total lunar eclipse to mesmerise skywatchers in March

25by Stuart Clark / 2d

Some observers will see only initial phase but those in North and South America can enjoy full celestial display This week, the moon experiences a total lunar eclipse, which although not as spectacular as a total solar eclipse is still a beautiful celestial sight to behold. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the full moon passes directly behind Earth, through our planet’s shadow. Skywatchers first

New treatment could cure one in 20 cases of high blood pressure

55by Denis Campbell Health policy editor / 2d

TTT therapy burns away nodules that lead to salt buildup in body, which increases risk of stroke or heart attack Half a million people in the UK with dangerously high blood pressure – a “silent killer” that causes tens of thousands of deaths a year – could be cured by a new treatment. Doctors have developed a technique to burn away nodules that lead to a large amount of salt building up in the bo

Two slaps in the face from the Europeans | Brief letters

by Guardian Staff / 2d

Têtes à claques | Remote control curtains | Writer or author? | Lady Jane Grey | Life expectancy | Singing teacher’s praises Regarding Marina Hyde’s reference to JD Vance and the German word Backpfeifengesicht , meaning “a face that is worthy of being slapped”, in French there is the similar concise expression tête à claque ( There are 1,000 grotesque memes of JD Vance – and they’re all more lika

How lateral flow tests are becoming a diagnostic gamechanger

by Linda Geddes / 2d

Familiar from the Covid era, the tests are becoming incredibly versatile, with potential uses including detecting killers such as strokes and sepsis Speedy finger-prick tests to diagnose strokes trialled in Cambridgeshire Swab, swoosh, splat. During the pandemic, many of us got used to using lateral flow tests to check if we were infected with Covid or were likely to infect others. But despite th

Speedy finger-prick tests to diagnose strokes trialled in Cambridgeshire

61by Linda Geddes / 3d

Kits could allow ambulance crews to identify patients with blood clots in their brain, allowing for quicker treatment How lateral flow tests are becoming a diagnostic gamechanger Ambulance crews in Cambridgeshire are piloting the use of finger-prick blood tests to diagnose the deadliest form of stroke, with preliminary data suggesting they may be up to twice as effective as relying on patients’ s

Five years on from the pandemic, the right’s fake Covid narrative has been turbo-charged into the mainstream | Laura Spinney

by Laura Spinney / 3d

Before the next outbreak, we need a serious conversation about how to cope, but first, the more strident, misguided voices must be muted Laura Spinney is a science journalist and the author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World Once, we