Science | The Guardian

Best seen before dawn, the shower will reach its peak on the night of 5–6 May The Eta Aquariid meteor shower bursts upon the skies this week, reaching its peak on the night of 5–6 May. Best seen before dawn, the chart shows the view looking east from London at 4am on 6 May. By this time, the shower’s radiant point will have climbed into the south-eastern sky. Continue reading...

Exclusive: A grazier has released emails that reveal the state’s environment and water department prioritised harvesting of winter cereal crops over wetlands Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here The New South Wales government has routinely delayed environmental flows to critical wetlands in the state’s north-west in favour of farming, despite adm…

From world record breakers to the most iconic image of all time, these are Guardian Australia’s top three photos for April. Photographer and picture editor, Carly Earl, hand-picks three photographs as her favourites every month and explains the craft and composition that makes them special. April’s edition includes a quiet, intimate moment of record-breaking athlete, Gout Gout, a picture perfect …

Recognised since antiquity, the constellation has a rich mythological tradition The northern hemisphere’s spring evenings are dominated by the unmistakable outline of Leo, one of the few constellations that resembles the creature it represents, the lion. Leo is most easily identified by its distinctive “backwards” question mark, referred to by astronomers as the “sickle” asterism and representing…

Understanding truffles is a ‘tricky proposition’ because most of the magic occurs underground Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Black truffles aren’t native to Australia, but since the first oaks and hazelnuts were planted in the 1990s, the local industry has flourished, becoming the largest producer outside Europe. Now, scientists have identified the environmental fact…

Volunteers’ data has enabled medical breakthroughs, but there are questions over how that data is protected With the revelation that the confidential health records of half a million British volunteers have been put up for sale on a Chinese website , we take a look at what the UK Biobank project has achieved – and why concerns have been raised. Continue reading...

Madeleine Finlay sits down with science editor Ian Sample to hear about some of the winners of the Breakthrough Prize, which held its ceremony in LA last weekend. Each prize is worth $3m and they’re awarded in physics, maths and life sciences. Madeleine and Ian hear from molecular biologist Jean Bennett, who shared a life sciences prize for her work developing the world’s first FDA-approved gene …

Zoologist, author and broadcaster who found fame with his groundbreaking 1967 book The Naked Ape Desmond Morris, the zoologist, writer and broadcaster, who has died aged 98, in the course of 60 years put his name to more than 50 books, and fronted several hundred hours of television, starting with the Granada children’s weekly programme Zoo Time from 1956. It was broadcast from a special resident…

First recorded in 687BC, the meteoroids were once part of the tail of a comet discovered in 1861 This week, the annual Lyrid meteor shower returns to the spring skies. Although active since 16 April, the shower peaks during the late evening of Wednesday 22 April and early the next morning. The chart shows the view looking east from London at 00.01 (BST) on Thursday 23 April. The origin point of t…

My friend and colleague Chris Walton, who has died aged 69 of brain cancer, was a biologist and lecturer at Cranfield University, Bedfordshire. He had a passion for getting things to work in the real world; consequently he was widely regarded by his colleagues as an honorary engineer. Chris studied volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in matrices including breath, sweat, blood, urine and faeces, fin…

Data assessed from 17 clinical trials of anti-amyloid drugs found no ‘meaningful effect’ on cognitive decline Drugs that have been hailed as a gamechanger for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease make no noticeable difference to patients, according to an extensive review. The analysis of clinical trials in people with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia found that the effects of anti-amylo…

In eastern Brazil, coleocephalocereus goebelianus towers above surrounding plants, making its beacon even clearer Some flowers lure bats into pollinating them by stinking like fermenting fruit, cabbage, garlic and even urine. But one cactus flower tempts bats by turning into an acoustic beacon. Bats make high-pitched squeaks, too high for humans to hear, and use the echoes when the sounds bounce …

A skull fragment found in a tray of unsorted fossils collected more than a century ago leads to discovery Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A prehistoric fossil, hiding in plain sight in museum storage for more than a century, has revealed that giant echidnas once roamed Victoria. The Owen’s giant echidna, Megalibgw…

A trio of tricky teasers Tanya Khovanova is a luminary of the recreational mathematics scene. She is one of its foremost bloggers and also runs Number Gossip , a site where you can sumbit a number and she “will tell you everything you want to know about it but were afraid to ask.” Tanya has now written her first book, Mathematical Puzzles and Curiosities, in collaboration with two other puzzle en…

The new moon will be particularly beautiful – at just 2.6 days old, only about 7.5% of its visible surface will be illuminated The brilliant beacon of planet Venus is now unmistakeable in the evening sky, appearing to the naked eye well before the twilight has fully faded into night. This week, the planet will be joined by a young crescent moon on the nights of 18 and 19 April. The chart shows th…

Astronauts make first remarks at jubilant homecoming in Houston after their record-breaking moon flyby Still marveling over their moon mission, the Artemis II astronauts received a thunderous welcome home on Saturday from hundreds who took part in setting a record for deep space travel during the US space agency Nasa’s lunar comeback. The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near Nasa’s Johnso…

Even as a triumphant moon flyby primes agency for a 2028 landing, Trump’s proposed budget cuts cast pall on US space program The astronauts on board Artemis II were “almost poets”, Nasa’s administrator, Jared Isaacman, declared on Friday, referring to their inspiring words as they swung above the lunar surface. They were, he said, “ambassadors for humanity” as they became the first humans to trav…

The Artemis II, and the four astronauts aboard the Orion space capsule, splashed down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Friday night, with all four astronauts in good health. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch of Nasa, and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, have just become the first humans to travel to the moon, and retur…

Southwark Playhouse Borough, London The songs soar and blast in this inventive tale of a toxic romance – though it needs a few tweaks to be truly brilliant The scope and ambition of this dark musical by Theo Jamieson and Adam Lenson are boundless. A jagged, time- and space-travelling drama about the emotional wreckage of a mutually destructive relationship, it begins with reports of a young astro…

As the Artemis II mission enters flight day nine, the crew spoke about inspiring the next generation and 'working on something big for the good of everyone' ahead of their return to earth. The crew, made up of three US astronauts and a Canadian, embarked on humanity's first crewed lunar voyage in more than half a century. The 10-day flight around the moon and back will mark the second mission of …