This week’s biggest stories
And so farewell to Cassini, whose incredibly rewarding mission to Saturn has reached a fiery and dramatic end after 20 years, eight billion miles, a ton of stunning images and masses of extremely intriguing data. The plucky spacecraft has now become one with the planet it so faithfully observed, which is a nice way of saying it’s burned away to nothing – or zero, the expression of which has caused excitement this week. The origin symbol we use today has been traced to the Bakhshali manuscript, dating from the 3rd or 4th century - which makes it about 500 years older than scholars previously believed. And although one is more than none (which will still be too many for some) there’s a good possibility that a new technology breakthrough will allow multiple time-delayed vaccines or drug doses to be delivered in single jab. This could see and end to booster jabs, and allow an improvement in vaccination rates in developing world countries. The practicality of this could be said to stand in sharp contrast to the weird and wonderful pieces of research celebrated by this year’s Ig Nobel prizes. Among the rich variety of winners, the judges rewarded work arguing that cats can be considered both solid and liquid, a study which pinpointed cheese disgust in the brain and another which proved that playing the didgeridoo is a cure for snoring. Hurrah for science.
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Talking point of the week
In the 1880s Scandinavian archaeologists unearthed a grave containing weapons, two horses and a set of game pieces, which lead researchers to believe that this person was interested in strategy and battle tactics. It was the grave of a Viking warrior who was, naturally, assumed to be a male. But DNA says no – this warrior was a woman. But why were assumptions made about the skeleton in the first place? Historical archaeologist Holly Norton, one of the bloggers on The Past and the Curious, explores the wider implications, not just for archaeology but for our versions of history.
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Straight from the lab – top picks from our experts on the blog network
Diving for Dakuwaqa: giving Fiji’s shark god a helping hand | Notes & Theories
For any shark diver, the species which are regular visitors to the reef come close to nirvana. To get an idea of how diverse the area is, Of Shark and Man, a recent film by David Diley, not only tells the story of the Shark Reef Marine Reserve but is a stunning showcase of the reef’s most regular visitors, including white-tip reefs, black-tip reefs, grey reefs, tawny nurse, sickle-fin lemons, silver-tip reefs, tigers, and – the species most consider to be the main attraction – bull sharks.
In the shadow of Fat Man and Little Boy: how the stigma of nuclear war was unravelled | Brain flapping
Passionate appeals from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors emphasised the brutal nature of the bomb, and further contributions to the growth of stigma were made by the women of Greenham Common and other anti-nuclear movements. A shift in attitudes meant that nuclear weapons had gained a special status, inhumane and uncivilised. Even President Ronald Reagan recognised the stigma of nuclear weapons during the cold war, saying that ‘A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. The only value in our two nations possessing nuclear weapons is to make sure they will never be used.’ His thoughts were echoed by UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev during the 1980s. How and why have we entered a new phase of nuclear brinkmanship?
E-cigarette science – is scaremongering hampering research opportunities? | Sifting the evidence
E-cigarettes have really divided the public health community, with researchers who have the common aim of reducing the levels of smoking and smoking-related harm suddenly finding themselves on opposite sides of the debate. This is concerning, and partly because in a relative dearth of research on the devices the same findings are being used by both sides to support and criticise e-cigarettes. And all this disagreement is playing out in the media, meaning an unclear picture of what we know (and don’t know) about e-cigarettes is being portrayed, with vapers feeling persecuted and people who have not yet tried to quit mistakenly believing that there’s no point in switching, as e-cigarettes might be just as harmful as smoking.
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Alex Bellos’s Monday puzzle
Some really clucking difficult puzzles for you this week - are you crowing at how cleverly you cracked them, or did you end up in a fowl mood?
Visit Alex Bellos’s Adventures in Numberland blog for more marvellous maths
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Science Weekly podcast
This week, Hannah Devlin delves into the case of a shamed Japanese scientist to explore how statistical malpractice is damaging science - whether employed knowingly or not.
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Eye on science – this week’s top images
Cassini pictures and video aside, there was plenty to feast your eyes on this week, including the fabulous winning entries from the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards. Look and marvel at our incredible universe.
