Science Weekly
Alok Jha and the Guardian's science team bring you the best analysis and interviews from the worlds of science and technology.
Rewilding with wolves: can they help rebuild ecosystems?
After wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone national park in 1995, researchers noticed some big ecological changes, leading to the regeneration of the landscape. It’s an argument used to justify the return of apex predators – but it’s increasingly being challenged. Phoebe Weston talks to Ian Sample about whether wolves really…
Seagrass meadows: can we rewild one of the world’s best carbon sinks?
They support an incredible array of biodiversity and may also be some of the world’s most effective carbon sinks. But vast swathes of seagrass meadows have been lost in the last century, and they continue to vanish at the rate of a football pitch every half hour. Madeleine Finlay makes…
How Google’s chatbot works – and why it isn’t sentient
Last week an engineer at Google claimed that an AI chatbot he worked with, known as LaMDA, had become ‘sentient’. Blake Lemoine published a transcript of his conversations with LaMDA that included responses about having feelings and fearing death. But could it really be conscious? AI researcher and author Kate…
How much does smoking damage our mental health?
According to some estimates smoking causes one in 10 deaths worldwide. A lesser known side-effect of cigarettes is the damage they cause to our mental health. Yet, the rates of smoking among people with mental health conditions are much higher than the rest of the population. Last week, the UK…
Why would Boris Johnson want to bring back imperial units?
When reports surfaced that Boris Johnson would be announcing the return of imperial measurements to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee, there was some celebration, consternation, and a lot of confusion. Britain already uses a mix of both imperial and metric, and it is legal to price goods in pounds and…
Is pollution making us fat?
Are synthetic chemicals we encounter every day causing us to gain weight? According to a major scientific review authored by dozens of scientists, there is now enough evidence to conclude that they are. Termed ‘obesogens’, these chemicals can be found in food packaging, personal hygiene products, electronics and even water…
The hidden science of bisexuality with Julia Shaw
Bisexuality is the largest sexual minority in the world – but according to psychologist Dr Julia Shaw, it’s the least well understood. She talks to Madeleine Finlay about her new book, Bi, which challenges us to think more deeply about who we are and how we love. She discusses the…
Why are there so few drugs you can take during pregnancy?
A recent report on the exclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women in clinical trials found that both women and babies in the UK are “dying needlessly” from a lack of suitable medications. Over the past 40 years, only two new medicines have been approved for use in pregnancy, leaving patients…
What should we do about monkeypox?
The sudden surge of monkeypox cases outside Africa has alarmed public health authorities around the world. In Europe and North America it’s the first time community transmission has been recorded among people with no links to west or central Africa. So what is happening? Ian Sample talks to virologist Oyewale…
What will the cost of living crisis do to our health?
Millions around the world are struggling with higher food and energy prices. In the UK inflation has reached a 40-year high of 9% in the 12 months to April, leaving many struggling to pay bills and shoulder normal living costs. When the weekly shop gets smaller and the flat gets…
The destruction of Gran Chaco, forgotten sister of the Amazon rainforest
From deep inside Gran Chaco, a dry tropical forest in Argentina one and a half times the size of California, comes a wake-up call for the world’s forests. We’ve lost more than a fifth of this incredibly biodiverse region since 1985. And it’s just one of many precious carbon-trapping ecosystems…
Is the world keeping Cop26’s climate promises?
Last November in Glasgow, countries agreed to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial averages. Six months on, the world has changed, with the war in Ukraine, high energy prices and the cost of living crisis threatening to derail us from achieving our climate goals. Ian Sample speaks…
Why aren’t women getting diagnosed with ADHD?
It’s estimated that a million women in the UK could have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – but according to the ADHD Foundation, 50–75% of them do not know they have it. Going without a diagnosis can impact someone’s education, employment and physical and mental health. So why are women being…
‘It’s a hellfire!’: how are India and Pakistan coping with extreme heat?
India and Pakistan have experienced their hottest April in 122 years. Temperatures are nearing 50C. Such extreme heat dries up water reservoirs, melts glaciers and damages crops. It’s also deadly. Ian Sample hears from Pakistan reporter Shah Meer Baloch about the situation on the ground, and speaks to Indian heat…
Why is the UK suffering HRT shortages?
From hot flushes and flooding to memory problems and depression, for many the menopause can be both distressing and debilitating. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can alleviate some of these symptoms by boosting levels of hormones that wane as women get older. But the UK is experiencing an acute shortage of…
Will the Large Hadron Collider find a new fifth force of nature?
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has recently been switched back on after a three-year hiatus to resolve a mysterious and tantalising result from its previous run. So far, everything discovered at the LHC has agreed with the standard model, the guiding theory of particle physics that describes the building blocks…
What’s behind the mysterious global rise in childhood hepatitis?
Over the past few weeks, countries around the world have reported an unexpected increase in the number of children with hepatitis. So far about 200 cases have been reported. More than half have come from the UK, but there have also been reports from Spain, Japan and the US, among…
Preventable author Devi Sridhar on how she handles Covid trolls
As the news came out of China that there was a new virus infecting humans, scientists around the world promptly got to work sequencing genomes, gathering data and communicating what they found with the public. One of the scientists catapulted into the public eye was Devi Sridhar, a professor in…
Space junk – how should we clean up our act?
This week, the US became the first country to ban anti-satellite missile tests, in an effort to protect Earth’s orbit from dangerous space debris. There could be millions of pieces of old satellites and spent rockets zooming around above our atmosphere, at speeds where collisions can be catastrophic. Guardian science…
Manifestation: why the pandemic had many of us seeing ghosts - Science Weekly podcast
While telling ghost stories has always been a favourite pastime for many, during the pandemic signs of paranormal activity have reportedly been on the rise. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Chris French about why more of us may have been having eerie experiences, how to explain these phenomena scientifically, and…