Science Weekly

Hardwired to eat: what can our dogs teach us about obesity?

Labradors are known for being greedy dogs, and now scientists have come up with a theory about the genetic factors that might be behind their behaviour. Science correspondent and labrador owner Nicola Davis visits Cambridge University to meet Dr Elea…

Who really wins if the Enhanced Games go ahead?

Billed as a rival to the Olympic Games, the Enhanced Games, set to take place in 2025, is a sporting event with a difference; athletes will be allowed to dope. Ian Sample talks to chief sports writer Barney Ronay about where the idea came from and ho…

Soundscape ecology: a window into a disappearing world

Guardian biodiversity reporter Phoebe Weston tells Madeleine Finlay about her visit to Monks Wood in Cambridgeshire, where ecologist Richard Broughton has witnessed the decline of the marsh tit population over 22 years, and has heard the impact on th…

The senior Swiss women who went to court over climate change, and won

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Switzerland’s weak climate policy had violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women to family life. Ian Sample and Ajit Niranjan discuss why the women brought the case and what the ruling could …

Remembering physicist Peter Higgs

The Nobel prize-winning British physicist Peter Higgs has died aged 94. Higgs theorised the existence of the Higgs boson particle, part of an attempt to explain why the building blocks of the universe have mass, five decades before its existence was …

Horny tortoises and solar mysteries: what scientists can learn from a total eclipse

For scientists a total solar eclipse can be a fleeting chance to understand something deeper about their field of research. Madeleine Finlay meets professors Huw Morgan and Adam Hartstone-Rose to find out what they hoped to learn from 8 April’s four …

The science of ‘weird shit’: why we believe in fate, ghosts and conspiracy theories

Psychologist Chris French has spent decades studying paranormal claims and mysterious experiences, from seemingly-impossible coincidences to paintings that purportedly predict the future. Ian Sample sits down with French to explore why so many of us …

Hypermobility: a blessing or a curse?

Being more flexible than the average person can have its advantages, from being great at games such as Limbo to feeling smug in yoga class. But researchers are coming to understand that being hypermobile can also be linked to pain in later life, anxi…

The virus that infects almost everyone, and its link to cancer and MS

On 28 March it’s the 60th anniversary of the discovery of Epstein-Barr virus, the most common viral infection in humans. The virus was first discovered in association with a rare type of cancer located in Africa, but is now understood to be implicate…

What could a severe solar storm do to Earth, and are we prepared?

The sun is currently ramping up to hit the peak of its 11-year activity cycle. In the past few days, powerful solar eruptions have sent a stream of particles towards Earth which are set to produce spectacular auroras in both hemispheres. But these ki…