<p>The satellite visuals reveal vast burn scars after blaze tore through rare ecosystems on Santa Rosa Island</p><p></p><p>Images from a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/nasa">Nasa</a> satellite showcased the devastating scars left behind by a wildfire that consumed roughly a third of Santa Rosa Island, one of the five that make up Channel Islands national park off the southern California coast.</p><p>Taken on 20 May, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (Modis) took the false-color image of the burn area, showing swaths of blackened land.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/27/santa-rosa-island-california-wildfire-damage">Continue reading...</a>
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<p>At least nine people have died in recent days as people have tried to cool off in Britain’s waterways</p><p>Water safety experts have warned about the dangers of outdoor swimming after a spike in drownings as people try to escape soaring temperatures by cooling off in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and other bodies of water.</p><p>In recent days, emergency services have reported at least nine deaths because of water-related incidents, seven of them young people, as Britain’s heatwave sends crowds of people to the seaside and other swimming spots.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/27/water-safety-experts-danger-outdoor-swimming-heatwave-uk">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Calaminarian grassland is a rare habitat where plants thrive in soils contaminated by heavy metals. But should these toxic meadows be protected or allowed to fade away?</p><p>At first, the small purple flowers are hard to spot in the weak May sunshine. Slowly the drifts of delicate mountain pansies, along with the white rosettes of alpine pennycress, begin to jump out, scattered across an area little bigger than a football pitch, on the banks of the River Allen in Northumberland.</p><p>This is a pocket of calaminarian grassland, an increasingly rare habitat where specialist plants called metallophytes have adapted to live in soils deeply contaminated by heavy metals, the legacy of more than 1,000 years of lead mining.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/27/blossoming-spoil-heaps-plants-metallophytes-heavy-metal-aoe">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Two scientists have described the bright fireball, crackling noise and sonic boom of the impact 66m years ago</p><p>What would it have been like to have lived through the meteorite impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 66m years ago? Writing in <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-it-would-have-been-like-to-experience-the-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-armageddon-a-blow-by-blow-account-271786">the Conversation</a>, Michael Benton, of the University of Bristol, and Monica Grady, of the Open University, describe in vivid detail how it might have felt.</p><p>The first sign that something was amiss would have been a new star visible for about a week before the event. Upon its arrival, all living creatures near the impact site would have seen the bright fireball, heard its crackling noise and experienced a sonic boom before being swiftly incinerated.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/27/dinosaur-killer-meteorite-impact-vivid-detail-terrawatch">Continue reading...</a>
<p>‘Gender attractiveness gap’ appears across cultures and over centuries but difference fades away with age</p><p>Women’s faces are rated as more attractive than men’s, even by other women, but the perceived gap declines with age and all but vanishes by the time people reach their 80s, researchers have said.</p><p>The work appears to confirm the existence of a “gender attractiveness gap”, an observation reflected in centuries of language that present women as “the fairer sex”, “das schöne Geschlecht”, “le beau sexe”, and far more beyond Europe.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/27/women-faces-rated-more-attractive-study">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Experts say climate change linked to 10% rise in salmonella antibiotic resistance genes between 1940 and 2023</p><p>The climate crisis is accelerating a global increase in antibiotic resistance that poses a serious threat to human health, experts have said as figures show a rise in salmonella antibiotic resistant genes.</p><p>Antibiotic resistance is one of the fastest-growing threats to global health. It can affect people of any age in any country and already kills more than 1 million people a year, according to estimates.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/26/climate-crisis-accelerating-antibiotic-resistance-across-world-salmonella-study">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Three lunar landings are planned for this year in preparation for the construction of a $20bn moon base</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/feb/17/sign-up-for-the-breaking-news-us-email-to-get-newsletter-alerts-direct-to-your-inbox?utm_medium=ACQUISITIONS_STANDFIRST&utm_campaign=BN22326&utm_content=signup&utm_term=standfirst&utm_source=GUARDIAN_WEB">Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email</a></p></li></ul><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/nasa">Nasa</a> announced on Tuesday ambitious plans for three uncrewed lunar missions this year to kickstart construction of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/mar/24/nasa-moon-base-cancelling-artemis">$20bn moon base</a>, and said it had chosen the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/blue-origin">Blue Origin</a>, ahead of Elon Musk’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/spacex">SpaceX</a>, to conduct the first.</p><p>The revelation by Nasa’s administrator, Jared Isaacman, at a press conference in Washington DC marked the first detailed public explanation of how and when the moon base will be built.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/26/nasa-jeff-bezos-blue-origin">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Team hope the UPatch – at present a proof-of-concept device – will aid early detection of complications and prevent stillbirths</p><p>Scientists have created a wearable ultrasound patch that can continuously monitor babies in the womb, with the hope that such devices could aid the early detection of complications during pregnancy.</p><p>The team behind the work say ultrasound-based techniques in place now have drawbacks: continuous monitoring of the baby’s heart rate and contractions of the womb using current methods leads to a high rate of false alarms, while the use of more conventional handheld devices for imaging is limited to a small number of scans during pregnancy, and must be carried out by a skilled operator.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/may/26/scientists-create-wearable-ultrasound-to-continuously-monitor-babies-in-womb">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Home red-light therapy devices have exploded in popularity as masks, body wraps and mittens promise to reduce wrinkles, redness and even acne. But do the claims stack up, and what other benefits are scientists investigating? Ian Sample hears from his co-host, Madeleine Finlay, and the consultant dermatologist Dr Jonathan Kentley. Kentley explains how the potential benefits of red light were discovered, how it is thought to interact with collagen in our skin, and what science has to say about its impact on our appearance</p><p><strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jan/26/is-it-true-that-red-light-therapy-masks-prevent-wrinkles">Is it true that … red light therapy masks prevent wrinkles?</a></strong></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/may/26/do-red-light-masks-really-keep-you-looking-young-podcast">Continue reading...</a>
<p>The answers to today’s problems.</p><p>Earlier today I set these four chess puzzles. Here they are again with solutions.</p><p><strong>1. Oddities</strong></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/25/did-you-solve-it-are-you-on-board-with-these-quirky-chess-puzzles">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Check it out</p><p>Today’s four puzzles are inspired by chess. (If you haven’t yet watched the recent documentaries on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/feb/06/queen-of-chess-review-netflix-documentary-judit-polgar-garry-kasparov">Judit Polgár</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/07/untold-chess-mates-review-hans-niemann-magnus-carlsen-netflix">Hans Niemann</a>, I recommend them.)</p><p><strong>1. Oddities</strong></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/25/can-you-solve-it-are-you-on-board-with-these-quirky-chess-puzzles">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Because we define dates based on the stars, the full moon on 31 May will be the second one of the calendar month</p><p>This week’s full moon is a blue moon. The term does not describe the colour of the moon, but instead arises from the way we define our calendar in reference to the stars rather than the moon.</p><p>The moon takes almost a month to circle our planet. The exact time is 29.5 days but if we were to define our calendar as 12 lunar months, the year would fall short by around 11 days. Thus, the calendar would fall out of step with the seasons.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/25/starwatch-this-weeks-rare-blue-moon-highlights-the-strange-way-we-mark-our-calendar">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Animals have tactics of their own to cope with the heat, but zoo animals also get a little help from their keepers</p><p>A hot bank holiday weekend might see humans flock to the beach, don summer hats and crack open a cold beer, but when it comes to keeping big cats cool, zoos turn to a rather different treat: blood lollies.</p><p>While experts note habitats within zoos are carefully tuned to their inhabitants’ needs, with areas of shade, water, sun and mud as appropriate, animals have tactics of their own to cope with the heat.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/24/london-zoo-big-cats-keep-cool-in-the-heat-with-blood-lollies">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Mission will put first astronaut in orbit for a year, a key step in Beijing’s plan to put people on the moon by 2030</p><p>China has launched its Shenzhou-23 mission in which an astronaut will spend a full year in orbit for the first time, a crucial step in Beijing’s ambition to send humans to the moon by 2030.</p><p>The Long March 2-F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan launch centre in north-western China on Sunday, carrying three astronauts to the Tiangong space station.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/24/china-launches-three-crew-space-flight-moon-shenzhou-23-mission">Continue reading...</a>
<p>La Brea Tar Pits – the only urban, active ice age excavation site in world – gets a mammoth face lift for the first time in nearly 50 years</p><p>Los Angeles is known for famous museum such as the Getty and the Lacma, but perhaps fewer people are aware that – in the heart of the city – lies a museum that contains one of the world’s most remarkable fossil sites.</p><p>The <a href="https://tarpits.org/la-brea-tar-pits-history">La Brea Tar Pits and Museum</a> is home to the remains of more than 2 million ice age flora and fauna, including mastodons and saber-toothed cats, that became trapped in oily pools that still bubble up today.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/24/la-brea-tar-pits-museum">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Technological interventions face huge financial or practical challenges, but there is another way</p><p>In 2019, my scientific research was nearly brought to an early end when my team and I published the bombastic statement that natural forest restoration was the “best climate change solution” available in a paper for the peer-reviewed journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax0848">Science</a>.</p><p>I remember a colleague from the World Wildlife Fund advising me that this message represented career suicide. He argued that people would be furious because reducing greenhouse gas emissions was the most urgent priority. The revival of nature might help with 30% of our carbon drawdown needs, but you cannot stop rising temperatures without cutting emissions.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/24/could-nature-itself-hold-the-solution-to-climate-change">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Project Hail Mary, Jurassic Park: from dino-mosquitoes to a spaceship’s roar, pointless mistakes on the scientific details make me wince</p><p>On the advice of my teenage son, I recently went to the cinema to see <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/10/project-hail-mary-review-ryan-goslings-charm-carries-unserious-last-ditch-space-mission">Project Hail Mary</a>. The film has science in it. I am a science writer and so he was convinced I would like it.</p><p>Imagine my surprise partway through, however, when I found myself seething so hard I thought I would combust. Ryland Grace – the main character and a molecular biologist who <em>should</em> have known better – had just put two plastic tubes into a centrifuge NEXT to each other!</p><p>Helen Pilcher is a science writer and author of <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/life-changing-9781472956729/">Life Changing: How Humans are Altering Life on Earth</a> and <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/this-book-may-cause-side-effects-9781805461432/">This Book May Cause Side Effects</a></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/24/hill-i-will-die-on-hollywood-blockbusters-science">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Risk of CTE in men’s sports has been widely studied, but female brains are softer and more vulnerable</p><p>Cleo Pallister-Turley, a back for Cardiff university’s women’s rugby team, winces as she recalls two major concussions from playing rugby. “Girls ask me, ‘aren’t you worried about getting injured?’,” the biomedical sciences student said. “I enjoy the physicality and the intensity. For me, no other sports compare.”</p><p>Women’s rugby has enjoyed significant growth in recent years. Women now make up a quarter of players worldwide, according to World Rugby, and more than 400 clubs offer rugby to women and girls around the UK; in the 1990s, only a handful existed.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/may/24/pioneering-study-aims-to-find-out-how-repeated-blows-to-head-in-womens-rugby-affects-brain">Continue reading...</a>
<p>SpaceX launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight on Friday. It was an upgraded version of the spacecraft Nasa is counting on to land astronauts on the moon. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites that were released midway through the hour-long flight that stretched halfway around the world. Despite some engine trouble, the spacecraft reached its final destination in the Indian Ocean where it erupted into flames on impact. The fire was not unexpected, according to SpaceX</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/22/spacex-launch-texas-test-flight">SpaceX launches its biggest rocket yet in test flight from Texas</a></p></li></ul> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2026/may/23/spacex-rocket-bursts-into-flames-during-indian-ocean-landing-video">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Exclusive: New biography uncovers Frank Hawking’s papers in which he lamented that his son had ‘little initiative’</p><p>In exploring the physics and geometry of the universe, Stephen Hawking became a world-renowned pioneer of black hole theory, writing the bestselling book A Brief History of Time, which has sold more than 13m copies, and inspiring people to “look up at the stars and not down at your feet”.</p><p>But, during Hawking’s student years and as he approached adulthood, his father was deeply concerned about how his son would turn out. Frank Hawking lamented that “he hangs round the house with little initiative and does not study much”, according to previously unknown diaries that he had written partly in code.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/23/stephen-hawking-father-worried-son-does-not-study-much-diaries">Continue reading...</a>
<p>The US supreme court has preserved nationwide access to mail-order abortion pills – for now. As Carter Sherman explains, the fight to protect this medication is far from over, as a nationwide, near-total abortion ban could be on the horizon. Carter speaks with Dr Angel Foster, co-founder of the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, who reveals how the legal battle over abortion pills has affected patients across the US – and what could happen next</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/may/23/stateside-with-kai-and-carter-why-the-fight-over-abortion-pills-is-only-just-beginning-podcast">Continue reading...</a>
<p>The launch is the 12th test flight of the mega-rocket that CEO Elon Musk is building to get people to Mars one day</p><p>SpaceX <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi2SU98BAD8">launched</a> its biggest, most powerful Starship yet on a test flight Friday, an upgraded version that Nasa is counting on to land astronauts on the moon.</p><p>The redesigned mega-rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced he’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/20/spacex-finances-stock-market-debut">taking the company public</a>. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites for release halfway around the world.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/22/spacex-launch-texas-test-flight">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Sink or swim? | Deep vision | Sacrificial candidate | Diverting days out</p><p>Sir Christopher Ball telling people their future longevity is in their own hands and to stop blaming others (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/20/responsibility-ill-health-old-age-oxford-longevity-project-study">Report, 20 May</a>) is akin to telling a drowning man to pull himself together and swim, without asking what were the circumstances that put him in the water in the first place. Life and longevity is a complex issue and simplistic solutions rarely hold water.<br><strong>Patrick Eckersley</strong><br><em>Woodbridge, Suffolk</em></p><p>• A large eye does not give more detailed vision (acuity) but better vision in the dark. The owl is a familiar example. So a wide-eyed ichthyosaur (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/21/natural-history-museum-jurassic-oceans-monsters-of-the-deep">Tentacles, pointy teeth and the T-rex of the sea: the Natural History Museum on beasts that once ruled the oceans, 21 May</a>) probably dived deep for its prey but had to contend with poor illumination. Extant abyssal animals such as giant squid have large eyes for the same reason.<br><strong>Julian Vincent</strong><br><em>Bath</em></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/22/health-blame-game-doesnt-hold-water">Continue reading...</a>
<p>From infections and allergies to brain diseases and autoimmune disorders, a wave of trials offers hope</p><p>Clinical trials of immunotherapies have rocketed in the past decade as researchers have turned their understanding of the body’s defences into powerful new treatments. Leading the pack are cancer therapies, but researchers have other conditions in their sights, from infections and allergies to brain diseases and autoimmune disorders. Here, we explore how these therapies work.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/22/what-are-immunotherapies-and-how-do-they-treat-cancer-and-other-conditions">Continue reading...</a>
<p>IPO filing from Elon Musk’s company reveals closer look at finances, cosmic ambitions and tech empire’s quirks</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/spacex">SpaceX</a> publicly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/21/elon-musk-trillion-dollar-spacex-flotation-takeaways">released</a> an investor prospectus on Wednesday as part of its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/20/spacex-finances-stock-market-debut">plan for a $1.75tn debut</a> on the US stock market next month, revealing unseen details about the finances and future plans of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a>’s flagship company. In addition to new information on operating costs and revenue, the filing also included trademark Muskian sweeping proclamations about the universe and insights into some of the quirks of his tech empire.</p><p>Scattered throughout the 300-plus-page prospectus are several disclosures and risk warnings that show the eccentricities of Musk’s company and its cosmic ambitions. Other financial details in the document highlight how interdependent Musk’s various businesses have become and the risks that they carry.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/22/spacex-ipo-filing-details">Continue reading...</a>