There is no majority support for use of gene editing on non-life-threatening conditions, writes Tom Lichy of the British Deaf Association

Your editorial (The Guardian view on gene-edited humans: darker uses must be acknowledged alongside medical ones, 5 July) offers welcome support to those expressing concern about the lack of public dialogue on gene-edited humans. These concerns are...

Pioneering American aviator who was the oldest woman to fly into space aged 82 in 2021

As an aviator, Wally Funk, who has died aged 87, was a trailblazing pioneer for women, breaking barriers for eight decades of a remarkable career. “Aviation has been my whole life; I eat and breathe it,” she said in her 2020 memoir, Higher, Faster, Longer (written with Loretta Hall).

She earned her pilot’s...

Sotheby’s expects second man on moon’s marker, crucial to Apollo 11 return, to reach astronomical sum

The felt-tip pen Buzz Aldrin used to fix a broken circuit breaker and escape from the moon in 1969 is up for auction in New York on Wednesday.

The dented silver plastic Duro Rocket pen – used by the second man on the moon to save Neil Armstrong and himself from being “stuck on the moon for...

Canadian scientists visit remains of polar exploration vessels in ‘golden era for shipwreck investigating’

Moments after devouring the final glimmers of light, the seafloor offered nothing but darkness and silt. Then the bow appeared.

More than 1,000ft (305 metres) below the surface of the Labrador Sea, off the coast of Canada, the skeleton of the final ship used by the famed polar explorer...

Despite Anthropic’s claims, Claude is no more likely to achieve sentience than a simulation of a weather system is likely to generate a real hurricane

For centuries, humans have been fascinated by the prospect of creating artificial beings in our own image. Of developing synthetic minds and artificial bodies that not only think but also feel, and are both intelligent and conscious. For the vast...

Anyone eating Lanmaoa asiatica could have visions for days of tiny people running and jumping around

Lanmaoa asiatica is a bolete mushroom, prized for its delicious taste and hugely popular in Yunnan province, China, where it is found growing in a symbiotic relationship with pine trees. But anyone eating the mushroom needs to be careful because it also gives hallucinations of lots of tiny...

Exclusive: Analysis offers ‘smoking gun evidence’ that overturns previous assumption that bronze age individual was male

The Upton Lovell Shaman, a bronze age individual who has been depicted in museum exhibits as a bearded spiritual leader and metalworker, was female, an ancient DNA analysis has revealed.

The 4,000-year-old skeleton, along with the extensive collection of stone axes,...

Scientists are trying to recreate the biology that lets animals survive months without food or water, in hopes of making deep-space travel possible

Long-term space travel is bad for your health. Very bad. Being in space exposes humans to dangerously high levels of radiation; extended exposure to microgravity can damage a range of organ systems, including muscles, bones and eyes. Living for...

Extreme exposure should be avoided, but we’ve gone too far the other way – enjoyed safely, the sun can have enormous health benefits

High summer has returned to the UK, 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...

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

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...

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...

Palaeontologists warn before auction at Sotheby’s in New York that super-rich collectors are harming research

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.

On Tuesday, one of...

Detection of erythrulose, also found in raspberries, shows that compounds key to life can form in interstellar space

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.

The discovery does not suggest that the galaxy revolves around a distant civilisation of pale, safety-conscious...

The psychotherapist Amy Morin says uttering a ‘short, positive sentence’ can offer the cognitive reset we need. The idea makes me cringe – but then I can barely cope with returning defective trousers

Are you dreading a high-stakes meeting, a challenging professional task or an awkward conversation? I’m not, because I’m a craven coward who has dodged that kind of unpleasantness for years. If...