Beaucoup ont déjà vécu cette expérience désagréable : une bouche fraîchement brossée, un grand verre de jus d’orange au petit-déjeuner, puis une grimace immédiate. Le contraste est brutal, presque choquant. Pourtant, ce phénomène n’a rien d’un mystère gustatif inexplicable. La science du goût apporte une réponse claire et étonnamment logique. Derrière cette aversion soudaine se ... Lire plus
Chaque être humain porte en lui une part biologique héritée bien plus intime qu’un simple patrimoine génétique. Au-delà de l’ADN transmis à la conception, le corps conserve durablement des cellules maternelles vivantes, présentes parfois pendant toute l’existence. Longtemps observé sans véritable explication, ce phénomène intrigue l’immunologie moderne. En principe, le système immunitaire élimine toute cellule ... Lire plus
L’image du marathon comme épreuve extrême pour le cœur alimente les débats depuis des années. Courir plus de quarante kilomètres sollicite intensément l’organisme, au point de faire naître une inquiétude persistante autour d’éventuelles lésions cardiaques. Pourtant, des travaux récents apportent un éclairage rassurant. Une étude de suivi sur dix ans montre que, chez les coureurs ... Lire plus
La mission Solar Orbiter marque un peu plus l’histoire de l’observation astronomique. Des scientifiques ont en effet réussi à suivre pendant 94 jours consécutifs une région solaire exceptionnellement active, à l’origine de la plus violente tempête géomagnétique observée depuis plus de vingt ans sur Terre. Une région solaire …
Reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight to reduce global heating is not a new idea. It is time to safely experiment
The world is warmingfast – and our options to avoid catastrophic harm are narrowing. 2024 was the first full year more than 1.5C hotter than the 19th-century average. Emissions are still rising, with fossil fuel use expected to hit a new high in 2025. Permanent carbon removal technologies – often cited as a fix – are removing just tens of thousands of tonnes annually, almost nothing relative to the 5-10bn tonnes needed. Cutting emissions and scaling carbon removal remain essential. But they may not be enough.
As suffering grows and ecosystems unravel, more people will ask: is there anything we can do to prevent these harms? The idea of reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight to reduce warming is not a new idea. In 1965, Lyndon B Johnson’s science advisers proposed it as the only way to cool the planet. Earth already reflects about 30% of incoming sunlight; raising that fraction slightly – say, to 31% – could strengthen the planet’s natural heat shield. But how?
They can hurt more than broken bones or pancreatitis. But with the right drugs and therapies, relief is possible from this debilitating and often misunderstood condition
It was a dreary Monday morning in September 2016, and I was working as a teacher, trying to settle a new year 7 class, when a sharp pain bloomed behind my right eye. It was followed by quick jolts, like electric shocks. As each class came and went, the pain eased and then returned with greater intensity. Four times that day I left a teaching assistant with worksheets and ran to the school bathroom to douse my face with cold water. I took ibuprofen, paracetamol, aspirin, but the pain remained unbearable.
The headaches appeared repeatedly that autumn, and again in spring, and soon formed an annual pattern. September and October were the worst, then February and March. I could predict the routine: aura in the shower, early twinges on the train, full-blown agony in class by 9.30am. In late 2019, a GP finally referred me to a neurologist and I was diagnosed with cluster headaches.
Senior insider says ‘limbo’ at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory has hit morale and disrupted vital research
A shake-up of the government’s defence science powerhouse at Porton Down has severely damaged morale and harmed work on critical science that supports national security, a senior whistleblower has told the Guardian.
The whistleblower said they were raising concerns in the public interest that the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), based largely at Porton Down in Wiltshire, had been left in a paralysing limbo because of the changes.
NASA begins demolishing outdated facilities in Alabama as new administrator Jared Isaacman launches major infrastructure modernization efforts for space exploration.
Pendant des décennies, manuels dentaires et récits populaires ont véhiculé une image séduisante : Égyptiens et Étrusques auraient maîtrisé l’art de redresser les dents grâce à des fils d’or sophistiqués et du boyau de chat. Un narratif flatteur suggérant que nos ancêtres poursuivaient déjà l’idéal du sourire parfait avec des techniques étonnamment modernes. Pourtant, lorsque ... Lire plus
Des scientifiques américains explorent une approche novatrice pour maintenir une flore buccale saine : perturber les systèmes de communication entre bactéries. Plutôt que d’éliminer indistinctement tous les micro-organismes présents dans la bouche, leur stratégie vise à favoriser les espèces bénéfiques au détriment de celles responsables des pathologies dentaires. L’équipe de l’université du Minnesota a analysé ... Lire plus
Une équipe australienne vient d’identifier plus de cent cinquante régions régulatrices situées dans des portions d’ADN autrefois considérées comme inutiles. Leur découverte concerne spécifiquement les astrocytes, cellules cérébrales fournissant un soutien vital aux neurones habituellement endommagés chez les patients atteints d’Alzheimer. Loin de représenter un simple catalogue génétique, ce travail met en lumière des interrupteurs ... Lire plus
There’s nothing more uplifting than hearing about a world-shaking, life-enhancing new development. But science shouldn’t overlook the small stuff, or stop looking for new species of cute, fluffy mammals …
People who greet the new year with hope, ambitious plans and optimised gut microbiomes might be obnoxiously apparent at the moment, but we all know they’re a minority. Most of us lurched into 2026 catastrophically depleted and grey-faced, juggling deep Lemsip dependency with a deeper overdraft and a sense of ever-deepening global geopolitical foreboding. There is, however, one thing that fills me with buoyant optimism now and always: science. I don’t understand it, but I’m delighted it’s out there, making things better.
The administration has made it clear that Nicolás Maduro's capture was tied to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Much less certain is how US companies will actually access them—or if they even want to.
Psychologist Chris Moore saw first-hand how powerful and complex an emotion it is
Fuelled by the relief of having finished end-of-year exams, the pleasure of a warm late spring evening and quite a lot of alcohol, the house party was one of those that should have been remembered for all the right reasons. At some point, later in the night, Chris Moore and three friends were ready to leave. The party was some way out of town – Cambridge – and too far to walk, and, anyway, there was a car, temptingly, in the driveway, its keys in the ignition.
Somebody – Moore can’t remember who – suggested they drive back, and with the recklessness of youth and too much beer, they all got in. “I ended up in the front passenger seat and fell asleep,” he says. He came to, being taken out of the car by paramedics, then sitting by the side of the road, his face streaming with blood, surrounded by the lights of the emergency services. They had been in an accident, and Moore had hit the windscreen, asleep, and had deep lacerations on his forehead. He was the only one of the four who had been injured. What he didn’t know until the next day, in hospital after surgery, was that they had driven into a cyclist and killed him.
Scientists achieve major robotics milestone as robot learns 1,000 different physical tasks in single day, potentially transforming manufacturing, healthcare and home robotics.
Descriptive set theorists study the niche mathematics of infinity. Now, they’ve shown that their problems can be rewritten in the concrete language of algorithms.
Three decades after its modest beginnings on Channel 4, the TV juggernaut now has its own channel and global subscribers
Thirty-two years ago, a small group of archaeologists gathered for a weekend in Somerset to make a TV programme about a field in Athelney, the site where once, 1,200 years ago, King Alfred the Great rallied resistance to the invading Viking army.
There weren’t many concessions to showbiz glitz. Instead, a group of blokes with unruly hair and a couple of women walked across a field, talked things over in the pub and, at one point, gathered around a dot matrix printer to watch it slowly disgorging some results. The most exciting artefact they found was a lump of iron slag. No soil was overturned.
Scientists argue ape-like Sahelanthropus tchadensis that lived in Africa 7m years ago is best contender but more fossils are needed
In the murky first chapters of the human story is an unknown ancestor that made the profound transition from walking on all fours to standing up tall, an act that came to define us.
The odds of stumbling on the fossilised evidence of such an evolutionary prize are slim, but in new research, scientists argue that an ape-like animal that lived in Africa 7m years ago is the best contender yet.
Back pain is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. Recent research reveals how much time you should spend walking on a daily basis to prevent it.
Grâce aux implants cérébraux d’Elon Musk, il pourrait bientôt être possible de contrôler des machines et des interfaces numériques simplement par la pensée.
Vers un monde toujours plus technologique… et dystopique ? À la frontière sino-vietnamienne, la ville de Fangchenggang v a devenir un laboratoire à ciel ouvert pour la robotique humanoïde. Les autorités locales ont en effet choisi d’y introduire des robots intelligents afin de fluidifier le passage des voyageurs …
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