When considering what makes up a human body, a physicist drills down beyond the atomic level. Columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein explores the not-exactly-real particles that allow the stuff we’re made of to hang together
Vetenskapsnyheter
Experts suggest more than 2,700 people may have died from heat-related causes during the heatwaves.
<p>Extreme exposure<strong> </strong>should be avoided, but we’ve gone too far the other way – enjoyed safely, the sun can have enormous health benefits</p><p>High summer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/summer">has returned to the UK</a>, and with it, the usual warnings about the dangers of sunlight and reminders to seek shade and cover up. After years of such advice, most members of the public naturally assume that the science connecting sun exposure to poor health is well established, so people are often shocked to learn that the opposite is true: those who spend more time in the sun tend to be healthier. A <em>lot</em> healthier.</p><p>I know because I began researching the subject nine years ago after stumbling upon some studies – and I’ve stayed on the case ever since, now summarising everything we know in my new book, <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/in-defense-of-sunlight-9781668092163?utm_source=editoriallink&utm_medium=merch&utm_campaign=article">In Defense of Sunlight</a>. It contains good news for many people: we don’t have to fear the sun nearly as much as we thought. In fact, most of us could benefit from a bit more exposure.</p><p>Rowan Jacobsen is a former Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a media fellow at the Nova Institute for Health in Baltimore. His book In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure is published this month</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/14/sun-health-outdoors-heatwave-daylight-science">Continue reading...</a>
<p>As the rights of nature are increasingly being recognised, the Scottish Association for Marine Science is the latest organisation to make the ocean a trustee</p><p>In a boardroom in an office building in Oban, a picturesque town on the west coast of Scotland, trustees attending meetings have long been able to see the breaking waves of the Atlantic through the windows. But since last month, the ocean has also been present in the room, with an unusual new initiative ensuring that it now has a say on decisions shaping the future of the 140-year-old Scottish Association for Marine Science (Sams).</p><p>Sams was set up during the Scottish Enlightenment, a time of growing interest in oceanography when nature was seen as something to be dominated and exploited.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jul/14/scottish-marine-scientists-ocean-board-trustees">Continue reading...</a>
Przewalski's horses were once listed as extinct in the wild, with only a few remaining in captivity.
Some London council already allow unused land to be turned into gardens, allotments and flowerbeds.
<p>Palaeontologists warn before auction at Sotheby’s in New York that super-rich collectors are harming research</p><p>With its dagger-like teeth, bone-crushing bite and behemothic size, the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex ruled western North America during the late Cretaceous period. Now its fossilised remains are about to dominate the auction house, with a price tag to terrify punters.</p><p>On Tuesday, one of the largest and most complete T rex skeletons discovered to date is to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York with an estimated sale price of $20m-$30m (£15m-£22.4m).</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jul/14/t-rex-skeleton-sothebys-auction-new-york-scientists">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Scientists often talk about the importance of flora and fauna to the health of our planet, but Dr Toby Kiers, an evolutionary biologist and founder of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, wants us to consider another force: fungi. Her work charting the planet’s vital underground systems has earned her numerous awards, including a MacArthur fellowship and a Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (sometimes called the ‘green’ Nobel). She tells Ian Sample about her work mapping fungal networks on the remote Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, and what the research reveals about fungi’s often invisible role</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/11/arbuscular-mycorrhizal-fungi-plant-life-climate-global-mapping-study">Subterranean fungi networks more than 100 quadrillion km in length, study finds</a></p><p>Support the Guardian: <a href="http://theguardian.com/sciencepod">theguardian.com/sciencepod</a></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2026/jul/14/fungi-the-invisible-force-protecting-our-planet-podcast">Continue reading...</a>
This flight will put Starship under higher pressure and test out new Starlink satellites in orbit.
Hieroglyphs on the wall of a Maya building record calculations concerning the orbits of Earth, Mars and Venus, as well as the name of a mathematician who wrote the text around 1200 years ago
<p>The signature of Sak Tahn Waax, or “White-Chested Fox,” was found inscribed in a 1,000-year-old chamber beneath present-day Guatemala</p>
<p>Record-breaking heat waves are beginning to blur together—here’s why and what’s making them so unbearable</p>
<p>Record-breaking heat waves are beginning to blur together—here’s why and what’s making them so unbearable</p>
New study confirms 2024 "momentum flux theory" on how angular momentum of water flows drives rotation.
<p>Hundreds of thousands of scientists, including Nobel laureates, warn that changes to the way federal grants are approved would greatly damage American science</p>
Artistic representations of ancient humans often show large men with bulging muscles – but our ancestors were actually smaller than us, in both height and body mass. Columnist Michael Marshall reveals surprising details about the short kings of prehistory
The pups are currently in a purpose-built nursery area, complete with private pool.
Researchers have long suspected early life may have been helped by sugars brought to Earth by asteroids – now a sugar found in raspberries has been spotted in a cosmic cloud nearly 27 light years away
<p>Detection of erythrulose, also found in raspberries, shows that compounds key to life can form in interstellar space</p><p>A natural sugar found in raspberries and used in fake tan lotions has been detected in an enormous cloud of dust and gas that lurks near the heart of the Milky Way.</p><p>The discovery does not suggest that the galaxy revolves around a distant civilisation of pale, safety-conscious frugivores, but shows that compounds important for life can form in the frigid expanse between the stars.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jul/13/natural-sugar-cloud-dust-gas-milky-way-erythrulose">Continue reading...</a>
Sustained heat stress is bad for our health and can be deadly. But we’re discovering that heat therapies like sauna, when used in the right way, have surprisingly wide-reaching benefits for health
<p>Erythrulose—a sugar found in raspberries—is also prevalent in a giant molecular cloud close to our galaxy’s core, scientists have discovered</p>
Researchers looking for the origins of left-right dominance in the brain found no innately better motor skills on either side.
An invisible difference in 10% of humans poses deep mysteries in several fields at once. <p>The post <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-am-i-left-handed-20260713/" target="_blank">Why Am I Left-Handed?</a> first appeared on <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org" target="_blank">Quanta Magazine</a></p>
New shelters are being created at the site near Dumfries, using peat, tree material and brash.
Two types of jet stream patterns seem to be causing persistent heat domes over Europe, with big questions for the future