Vetenskapsnyheter

<p>Analysis pinpoints areas most vulnerable to hotter, drier weather causing ground to shrink and drag foundations down</p><p>Millions of homes are at risk from climate-related subsidence, according toan analysis by the British Geological Survey (BGS).</p><p>As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/20/britain-must-think-like-a-hot-country-otherwise-inequalities-will-only-grow">hotter, drier summers</a> driven by global heating become more frequent, the ground under houses can shrink and drag down a property’s foundations. The most vulnerable areas include London, Essex, Kent and a tranche of land from Oxford up to the Wash on England’s east coast, according to scientists, who say mitigation measures will be needed.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/11/millions-homes-london-essex-and-kent-sinking-climate-crisis-subsidence">Continue reading...</a>

<p>A daily pill can double survival time in patients with the world’s deadliest cancer, according to the results of a clinical trial that experts are saying is a gamechanger and one of the biggest breakthroughs in decades. To find out more about how daraxonrasib works and how life-changing it could be for patients, Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Naureen Starling, consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden hospital</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/jun/11/the-undruggable-became-druggable-a-breakthrough-cancer-treatment-podcast">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Some remains found in Diamantina fracture zone date back more than 5m years and reveal species and ecosystems unknown to science</p><p>The oldest, deepest and most extensive whale graveyard yet discovered has been found in the south-eastern Indian Ocean, with fossils dating back more than 5m years.</p><p>Whale falls – the term for dead whales that sink to the ocean floor – are not uncommon, but most have been found at depths of less than 4km (2.5 miles). By contrast, the newly discovered necropolis reaches depths of more than 7km, and extends hundreds of miles across the sea floor.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/10/deepest-most-extensive-whale-graveyard-discovered-indian-ocean">Continue reading...</a>

<p>New research suggests GLP-1 users are buying fewer snacks and treats such as crisps and chocolate</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2026/jun/10/asian-stocks-fall-us-iran-exchange-fire-middle-east-strait-of-hormuz-oil-prices-latest-news-updates">Business live – latest updates</a></p></li></ul><p>Weight-loss drugs are saving users’ households more than £400 a year on grocery bills, according to new research, which found use of GLP-1s has nearly tripled in the past two years to 1.9 million adults.</p><p>Just more than 6.3% of households in Great Britain now include at least one GLP-1 user, according to the survey from Worldpanel by Numerator. This marks a sharp rise from 4.1% of households in 2025 and 2.3% in 2024.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/10/weight-loss-drugs-grocery-bills-glp-1s">Continue reading...</a>

<p>System not fit for purpose due to poor infrastructure and planning, with minority groups particularly at risk, MPs say</p><p>The UK’s stem cell transplant system is potentially putting the lives of blood cancer patients at risk as a result of inadequate infrastructure and a lack of long-term planning, a parliamentary report has found.</p><p>A hematopoietic stem cell transplant, often referred to as a bone marrow transplant, is a medical procedure in which stem cells from a healthy donor are transplanted into a patient.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/10/uk-stem-cell-transplant-system-not-fit-for-purpose-mp-group">Continue reading...</a>

<p>From Spain to Japan, experiments have repeatedly shown a left-turn bias, but exact mechanic ‘is still an open question’</p><p>“I’m not an ambi-turner,” laments Derek Zoolander in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2007/may/02/zoolanderisthefinestfilma">eponymous noughties satire</a> about the world’s hottest male model and his rare catwalk hangup. “It’s a problem I’ve had since I was a baby … I can’t turn left.”</p><p>Now, research suggests that the fashionista’s career-threatening quirk was even more unusual than previously thought. Tests reveal that when people are ambling about, they have a natural tendency to turn to the left and walk in an anticlockwise direction.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/10/humans-prefer-to-walk-anticlockwise-scientists-find-reason-unclear">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Diamond Light Source and ISIS Neutron and Muon Source face cuts of up to 20% as Science and Technology Facilities Council seeks savings</p><p>Britain’s scientific capabilities face “serious damage” with some national facilities at risk of closure under spending cuts that are being considered to meet spiralling costs at the government’s infrastructure funding agency.</p><p>The concern surrounds sites funded and operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), including the Diamond Light Source and ISIS Neutron and Muon Source in Oxfordshire and other national facilities at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/jun/10/world-leading-uk-science-facilities-funding-crisis">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Nasa astronaut Jessica Meir, part of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission, released a timelapse showing the southern lights as seen from the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. They appear near the poles because Earth's magnetic field channels charged particles from the sun toward those regions, where they collide with the atmosphere and create shimmering curtains of colour. 'As opposed to the previous aurora I’ve seen, this one danced and snaked its way directly below us, putting on quite a show. I am in awe of this ethereal and emotionally evocative phenomenon,' Meir wrote on social media</p><p></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2026/jun/10/this-one-danced-and-snaked-nasa-astronaut-captures-aurora-australis-from-space-video">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Nasa revealed the crew for its Artemis III mission in Houston on Tuesday, the next step in the US space agency’s plan to eventually land astronauts on the moon. The announcement came two months after Artemis II’s record-breaking trip around the moon that surpassed the maximum distance achieved by Apollo 13. Nasa’s Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas and the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano will orbit Earth while practising docking their Orion capsule with two lunar landers</p><p></p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/09/artemis-iii-crew-nasa-moon">‘Earth’s first starfleet’: Nasa reveals Artemis III crew and project’s next steps</a></p></li></ul> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2026/jun/09/nasa-unveils-astronaut-crew-for-artemis-iii-mission-video">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Luca Parmitano to pilot all-male crew of four paving way for planned first human landing on Artemis IV in 2028</p><p>Jared Isaacman, the Nasa administrator, hailed the creation of “Earth’s first starfleet” on Tuesday as he revealed the Artemis III crew and details of the next stages of the space agency’s project to return humans to the moon.</p><p>An Italian astronaut, Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA), will be the pilot of the planned two-week mission to lower Earth orbit next year that will test lunar landers from private companies Blue Origin and SpaceX.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/09/artemis-iii-crew-nasa-moon">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Researchers believe the same pair of birds have been mating and nesting in the unusual spot in the Daintree Rainforest for 15 consecutive years</p><ul><li><p>Get our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl">breaking news email</a>, <a href="https://app.adjust.com/w4u7jx3">free app</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl">daily news podcast</a></p></li></ul><p>It started by chance – but it should have come as no surprise that two ospreys would pick a hi-tech research facility to make their home.</p><p>James Cook University’s 47-metre tall crane towers over the far-north Queensland rainforest canopy, making it the perfect nesting place for the seabird.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/10/osprey-cam-streams-nesting-seabirds-queensland-rainforest-canopy-crane">Continue reading...</a>

<p>The species is abundant within the protected archipelago but when they migrate outside the marine reserve to give birth they run the gauntlet of industrial fishing</p><p>The unmistakable fluted T-shape of a scalloped hammerhead shark slides by, followed by a diver holding his breath and a metal spear like an extra-long snooker cue. The spear hits the fish behind its dorsal fin and the 2-metre shark darts away, disgruntled but otherwise unharmed.</p><p>Carlos Robalino, a marine biologist from the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/galapagos-islands">Galápagos Islands</a>, trained as a shark researcher in Mexico but is now back home and working as a junior researcher at the <a href="https://www.darwinfoundation.org/en/">Charles Darwin Foundation</a>. When we meet in March, he is one of the divers on the foundation’s research expedition to Darwin and Wolf, the most northerly islands in the Galápagos marine reserve.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/09/galapagos-scalloped-hammerhead-sharks-industrial-fishing-baby-pregnant-conservation">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Exclusive: Sir Paul Marshall’s climate views and those broadcast on GB News said to be ‘in direct opposition’ to those of Church of England</p><p>The co-owner of GB News, a British TV channel accused of broadcasting climate change denial, has donated £28m to influential Church of England institutions that support climate action.</p><p>This raises “serious questions”, say Christian leaders, given that Sir Paul Marshall’s views on the climate crisis and those frequently broadcast on the TV channel are “in direct opposition” to the Church of England, which <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/about/church-england-environment-programme">believes that</a> “responding to the climate crisis is an essential part of our responsibility to safeguard God’s creation and achieve a just world”.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/09/christian-leaders-alarmed-by-climate-crisis-raise-questions-over-gb-news-owners-28m-church-donations">Continue reading...</a>

<p>While many dinosaurs were wiped out when a colossal asteroid struck Earth 66m years ago, one group survived: birds. Prof Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh, has written a new book, The Story of Birds, tracing the evolution of our feathered friends from their dinosaur origins. He joins science correspondent Nicola Davis to discuss how scales first became feathers, how winged dinosaurs survived the impact of the asteroid and why their extreme adaptability offers hope that birds might also make it through the current environmental crisis</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/audio/2026/jun/09/the-dinosaurs-who-survived-the-asteroid-podcast">Continue reading...</a>

<p>The 12 finalists will be exhibited at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery during <a href="https://www.beakerstreet.com.au/">Beaker Street festival</a> from 6 to 17 August, including images of newborn fish, a native wasp and satellite trails across the night sky</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2026/mar/31/liss-fenwick-colony-old-books-termites-in-pictures">The language of termites: Liss Fenwick’s The Colony – in pictures</a></p></li></ul> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2026/jun/09/beaker-street-science-photography-prize-tasmanian-museum-gallery-in-pictures">Continue reading...</a>

<p>The answer to today’s puzzle</p><p>Earlier today I set this elegant number puzzle. Here it is again with a solution.</p><p><strong>Nose to tail </strong></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/08/did-you-solve-it-do-you-have-a-snout-for-numbers">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Trial suggests monoclonal antibody can help retain lean body mass when losing weight with GLP-1 medicines</p><p>A drug that promotes muscle growth could significantly reduce the loss of lean body mass when using slimming jabs, research suggests.</p><p>While GLP-1 based jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/may/17/weight-loss-drugs-altering-views-how-body-brain-work">proved highly effective</a> at helping people who are overweight or obese, experts <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2026/jun/04/ive-lost-my-butt-how-rapid-weight-loss-can-leave-you-with-less-muscle-and-more-fat">have warned</a> it is not only fat that is lost. Studies suggest 25-40% of total weight loss is down to a reduction in lean body mass – non-fat components of the body, including muscle.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/08/muscle-growth-drug-lean-body-mass-slimming-jabs">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Guardian analysis finds facilities to be built in some of the driest areas as outcry grows over water needed to power AI</p><p>A record-shattering drought has racked much of the US. But the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/artificialintelligenceai">artificial intelligence</a> industry is pushing ahead regardless, with the majority of planned datacenters set to be built in drought-ridden locations, a Guardian analysis has found.</p><p>About two-thirds of upcoming datacenters, which typically require a large amount of water to operate, are set to be built in places that have been among the driest in the country over the past year.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/08/datacenter-ai-drought-water">Continue reading...</a>

<p>We are in dangerous territory as courts encourage jurors to discern untruth from body language. In fact, the words are far more revealing</p><p>Imagine you are a juror on a murder trial. A married couple have been found shot dead. The defendant, a man known to them, denies the charge. You’ve heard the prosecution’s evidence and you’ve heard his testimony. But you and your fellow jurors are unsure if you should believe his protestations of innocence. At the hotel in the evening, another juror makes a novel suggestion: contact the spirits of the dead couple to find out if the defendant is lying. In agreement, you all sit around a crudely constructed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/30/ouija-board-mystery-history">Ouija board</a> and call upon the spirits of the dead couple to ask: “Who killed you?” The board spells out the name of the defendant. The next day, you return a guilty verdict to the court.</p><p>Sounds too absurd to be true? Well, in 1994 an English jury <em>did</em> <a href="https://stacklaw.com.au/news/criminal-law/ouija-board-used-by-uk-jury-to-determine-verdict-in-murder-trial">consult a Ouija board</a> (a retrial was ordered, and the defendant was found guilty again). But it is no less absurd than a jury being directed by the courts to use an assessment of body language to make a judgment. Judicial directions in Scotland <a href="https://judiciary.scot/docs/librariesprovider3/judiciarydocuments/jury-manual/20240903-jury-manual.pdf?sfvrsn=8bbad1fe_1">advise jurors</a> that they can “look at the content of witnesses’ evidence, [and] their body language in giving it”. Similarly, in England and Wales, jurors are instructed <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/guidance-and-resources/crown-court-compendium-october-2025/">not to take so many notes</a> during a trial that they are “unable to observe the manner/demeanour of the witnesses as they give their evidence”. It appears that the UK’s judicial system is no different from most…

<p>This game is end to end!</p><p>Today’s offering is for fans of the number 4. It’s a cute puzzle that offers up its solution in an elegant way.</p><p><strong>Nose to tail </strong></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/08/can-you-solve-it-do-you-have-a-snout-for-numbers">Continue reading...</a>

<p>In today’s newsletter: ​Researchers are giving us new insights into early detection and treatments, but with access to life-saving care remaining uneven patients still have a long road ahead</p><p></p><p>Good morning. Israel has returned fire on Iran following a wave of missile strikes, the first attacks between the two countries since April’s ceasefire, despite <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/08/trump-briefing-israel-iran-missile-attack-peace-deal">Donald Trump reportedly urging</a> Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate. The escalation threatens to drag the Middle East back into a regional war and raises fears that peace talks between Washington and Tehran could be derailed. But today we are looking at another – and possibly more hopeful – topic.</p><p>News of cancer, whenever it arrives, is never welcome. For most of human history, a diagnosis has been a death sentence. But increasingly, better drugs, better care and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/07/nhs-hospitals-adopt-faster-accurate-bladder-cancer-test">better testing</a> mean that this is no longer true for many. Survival chances have radically improved for several cancers in recent decades. More than 50 million people are alive today after a cancer diagnosis in the last 5 years, according to the <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/01-02-2024-global-cancer-burden-growing--amidst-mounting-need-for-services">World Health Organization</a>. Cancer mortality rates have <a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/all-cancers-combined/mortality">decreased by almost a quarter</a> (23%) in the UK since the early 1970s.</p><p><em><strong>Middle East </strong></em>| Israel launched<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/08/israel-netanyahu-airstrikes-iran-retaliation-defies-trump"> airstrikes on central and western Iran</a> on Monday in apparent defiance of Donald Trump after he urged restraint ov…

<p>A drug for pancreatic cancer shows immense promise, but we shouldn’t forget research in the field is a story of small victories</p><p>It is unlikely that we will ever declare a final victory over cancer. Governments have often promised it: from&nbsp;Nixon’s 1971 “war on cancer” to the 2016 Obama‑Biden plan to fight and cure it “once and for all”&nbsp;and Sajid&nbsp;Javid’s 2022 “war on cancer” initiative&nbsp;in&nbsp;the UK. But framing it this way can obscure&nbsp;how real progress is made: not in stunning routs, but in stalling&nbsp;and turning&nbsp;back the advance of this terrible condition – often in simply giving people more time to live.</p><p>Several such breakthroughs, and a bigger one that could transform the treatment of multiple kinds of cancer over the next decade, emerged at last week’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. As the Guardian revealed, there is a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/30/cancer-jab-can-eradicate-entire-tumours-in-patients-trial-shows">new jab</a> effective against head and neck cancers in some patients, and a new immunotherapy that could <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/02/drug-bladder-cancer-life-changing-surgery-durvalumab">spare bladder cancer patients</a> invasive and life-changing surgery. Most significantly, there is a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/31/daily-pill-daraxonrasib-double-survival-time-pancreatic-pancreas-cancer-clinical-trial">new drug called daraxonrasib</a>, which doubled survival time for pancreatic cancer patients in a recent clinical trial.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/07/the-guardian-view-on-cancer-treatments-new-hope-for-patients-now-and-in-the-future">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Experts say results from trial of new triple hormone drug for type 2 diabetes are striking but further tests needed</p><p>A new triple-action weekly jab for type 2 diabetes could significantly reduce blood sugar and body weight, according to <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00967-0/fulltext">phase 3 trial results</a>.<br><br> Patients in the trial receiving weekly retatrutide injections for 40 weeks lost more than four times as much weight as those on placebo, while the average drop in long-term blood sugar (HbA1c) was more than twice that of the placebo.</p><p>The triple hormone drug mimics three gut hormones that help control your appetite, blood sugar and metabolism: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon. Unlike other diabetes medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which primarily target the GLP-1 pathway to suppress appetite, or Mounjaro, which contains GLP-1 plus GIP to control blood-sugar levels, retatrutide also engages the glucagon receptor, which helps increase energy expenditure.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/07/weekly-diabetes-jab-reduce-blood-sugar-levels-body-weight">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Elon Musk firm plans the biggest stock market launch in history – but experts have flagged potential downsides</p><p>It’s being billed as the biggest stock market launch in history. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/03/spacex-ipo-stock-musk">Shares in Elon Musk’s SpaceX</a> are poised to be released on 12 June with a valuation of $135 (£100.84). The company plans to sell 555.6m of them, which means it will raise $75bn from the sale.</p><p>On Friday, it was reported that <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3cf5aed7-1a57-44ad-b9bc-11c779a5d2de?syn-25a6b1a6=1">up to a quarter of the shares could be reserved for individual investors</a>, rather than funds and banks. This is a bigger share than is typically the case in a large initial public offering (IPO).</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/06/spacex-ipo-buy-shares-elon-musk-stock-market-launch-risks">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Diagnostic interviews seen as ‘gold standard’ vary in reliability from condition to condition, study says</p><p>Diagnostic interviews – the most common way to diagnose substance use and mental disorders including depression, anxiety, bipolar and personality disorders – vary in reliability from condition to condition, according to a new study in <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2849585">Jama Network Open</a>.</p><p>Laura Duncan, a psychiatry professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and one of the study’s authors<em>, </em>said diagnostic interviews are “often treated as a ‘gold standard’ for assessing mental disorders in both clinical settings and research”, but pointed out that these interviews fall short of providing a “definitive benchmark that demonstrates excellent validity and reliability”.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/06/mental-health-disorders-interview-diagnosis-study">Continue reading...</a>